Super 80’s
Out of every film coming out this summer, I’m looking forward to Super 8 the most.
There are a number of reasons for this, but it boils down to a few factors:
1. JJ Abrams directs, and he’s earned my trust after LOST and Star Trek
2. Though it takes place in 1979, the film’s aesthetic is almost certainly that of early-to-mid 80’s films produced and/or directed by Steven Speilberg (and I mean old, fun Speilberg, not post-Schindler’s, preachy/boring Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Speilberg). Not surprisingly, the film is exec produced by Speilberg.
Most early reviews city two films as being the mood and tone that Super 8 captures: The Goonies and Stand By Me.
Consider me sold.
I’m literally a child of the 80’s, having been born in 1981 (which makes me 30 as of this Friday, June 10th - the same day Super 8 opens). A lot of what occurred during the first decade of my life inexorably shaped me as a person. The films, the music, the culture of the 80’s are things that I still revel in to this day. I love everything about the 80’s, save Ronald Reagan.
I suppose it’s not really that surprising that as people from my generation hit adulthood, more and more the entertainment landscape seems to be playing on our nostalgia. The fact that there is a big-budget Transformers film franchise is one indicator, as is the fact that people my age were so bummed that Macho Man Randy Savage died late last month.
But when it really comes down to it, there are people (like me) who love the 80’s, and there are those that hate the 80’s.
I remember before I moved away from Orange County last summer, my friends threw me a going away party. The party was 80’s themed, much to my delight. However, I got a very derisive and condescending comment from a couple of people that I thought were my friends: “80’s parties were cool…in the 90’s.”
Never mind the fact that we weren’t even old enough to go to 80’s clubs and parties in the 90’s, this kind of pissed me off. I like the 80’s. I still listen to tons of 80’s music, especially The Cure, old (good) U2, New Order, etc. I still love my childhood favorite films like Ghostbusters, Conan the Barbarian (which is getting an awful looking remake), The Goonies (I can probably recite the bulk of this movie still), and whatever else besides Conan Arnold starred in back in the day. I love the 80’s without irony, which is something that I suppose is lost on those two friends that made snide comments.
Which brings me back to why I’m so excited for Super 8. From all accounts, it is an irony-free take on 80’s kids + adventures films. I’m sure that my 80’s hating friends will watch it and wonder what the big deal is about. But I’m ready and willing to gaze into the maw of nostalgia and come away in love with Super 8.
Of course, now that my expectations are through the roof, the film might let me down. But I can’t blame them, no matter what happens, for trying to deliver that old-school Amblin Films feel. Too many films have lost that sense of fun and adventure (outside of animation, actually) that those old school 80’s films offered, and I’m ready for it all over again.
