Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2011

© 2011 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved

Director J.J. Abrams’s (Mission Impossible III, Star Trek, lots of TV) new film conjures up memories of Steven Spielberg’s early works, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or ET (but without the cute). In fact, you’d call it a Spielberg rip-off if Spielberg himself weren’t the producer. It’s 1979. Six young kids having a blast making their own zombie movie on Super 8 (ancient, pre-camcorder technology) accidentally film the spectacular and possibly deliberate derailing of a military freight train and glimpse the escape of this huge, arachnid monster with authority issues. Soon townspeople are disappearing, all the dogs have fled the area, and odd sounds are coming from the junkyard. The adults, basically plot devices, just argue about what’s happening, so the kids set out to solve the mystery. This movie is good for what it is not: It’s not a sequel or a prequel; it’s not in 3D; It’s not SFX-driven (though the CG bits are state-of-the-art, the characters and story come first); the kid actors (including Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning) avoid being cloying; and the monster is wisely not fully revealed until very late in the game. All in all, good, old-fashioned movie fun.