Review of "Super 8"

Super indeed.

There's so much that's right about "Super 8," the riveting, coming-of-age, sci-fi, adventure, buddy, young love, conspiracy-driven, innocence-in-America action film from director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg that it's hard to find anything bad to say about the movie.

Then again, it's hard to say anything at all, since most of the film's storylines and major conflicts have been kept under tight wraps for months. Trailers for the film tell next to nothing about it, and that's as it should be.

Better to trot out the movie's obvious influences, which include about every decent thing Spielberg himself presided over in the '70s and '80s — "E.T.," "Close Encounters," even "Poltergeist" and "Goonies."

Toss in a healthy measure of Rob Reiner's bonding classic "Stand by Me" and passing winks at "WarGames," "Independence Day," "Gremlins" and even "Duel," and you've got one grand mash of a movie that's trying to capture the innocence and energy of an earlier time while bringing it into the right here and now.

Not that the here and now is actually here and now. In keeping with the suburban nostalgia theme, "Super 8" takes place in the late, pre-video camera '70s and follows a bunch of dorks — not unlike the young Spielberg and later Abrams — who like to make amateur movies on Super 8 film cameras.

The auteur is Charles (Riley Griffiths), who's directing (what else?) a romantic zombie story, using adolescent kids from around his small town. But the film's star is Joe (Joel Courtney), son of the town's recently widowed deputy sheriff (Kyle Chandler) and in charge of make-up and models.

Joe is struck dumb when a 14-year-old beauty, Alice (Elle Fanning, making a strong case for a long career), joins the cast. Not only is she a bit older than the rest, she's also the daughter of a town troublemaker, and brazen enough to steal his car to drive to a shooting location.

That location would be the town train station, where Alice blows her pre-adolescent peers away with a line reading that shows she can actually act (it's a much cleaner version of Naomi Watts' mind-boggling audition in "Mulholland Drive").

But just as the guys are bathing in Alice's talent, a train begins approaching the station, and the gang scrambles to try to get some real train footage in their low-budget movie.

They get a lot more than they're looking for when the train runs into a pickup waiting on the tracks and the resulting disaster sees screaming kids running everywhere as train cars go flying and exploding.

The camera, of course, keeps recording. And that turns out to be very important. Because something escapes from the wrecked train. And as hordes of soldiers and government officials begin flocking to the scene, it becomes clear that something is very important.

If the film does have a weakness, it's that those accustomed to Spielberg will quickly get an idea in what directions things are heading; although Abrams skillfully keeps questions looming overhead for a good long time.

Bodies are whisked out of shots; all the dogs leave town; interment camps are set up: What's going on here?

What's going on here is an old-fashioned, good-feeling summer movie spectacle that doesn't rely on comic tie-ins, familiar superheroes or even movie stars.

What's going on here is a great story, well-told, with humor, thrills and — most importantly — a sense of wonder that quashes all cynicism.

Remember the good old days? This is the movie you went to see on a Saturday afternoon in the good old days.

And if you weren't around for the good old days, well, you are now. "Super 8" is summer at its best.