JJ Abrams was very interested in the Dark Tower. . . way back before Ron Howard was. Remember that? He walked away from the project in 2009. So what's he been up to? SUPER 8! Wow, this movie was awesome! A classic monster movie without the bad "classic monster movie" special effects. But this is not a special effects driven film.
In many ways the movie reminded me of a Stephen King story. The characters were through the roof good. And the story was much more about the people, not the monster.
Of interest to the Stephen King universe is the several references to horror director George Romero (Creepshow). The name of the fictional chemical plant in the movie within the movie is: "Romero Chemical Plant." I also enjoyed spotting Darth Vader's Tie Fighter.
The movie was so well executed, I am hopeful maybe Abrams can be brought onto the new IT project. It's not just how he handled the monster, it's how Abram's presented children. The dialogue was real, the children's lives complex, and their emotions raw. While the young band of movie makers is not exactly a "loser club", it wouldn't be too far a leap. Seriously -- I have been Ho-Hum over the IT remake; but his hand in the project could seriously energize it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRQQCKS7go
I didn't like the movie quite as much as you did, David, but I did like it quite a bit. I work at a theatre, and I actually watched it twice in one night!
ReplyDeleteA co-worker -- whom I'd recently loaned "It" -- watched the movie with me, and leaned over to me at one point and said, "This reminds me of the kids in "It"!" I hadn't made the connection, but he was right, and so are you.
I have to say, if I found out J.J. Abrams was making a movie based on "It," I'd be stoked. If I found out he was making a ten-part HBO miniseries based on "It," I'd probably die of excitement right there on the spot.
By the way, if I might be allowed some slight self-promotion, I also wrote a review of the movie for my ultra-dinky Spielberg blog. Here's a link:
http://stevenspielblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/brief-review-of-super-8.html
It's not much of a review, but I'm going to try and use my two off days this week to put together something more detailed.
I was wondering where Bryant has been! Always enjoy your input.
ReplyDeleteYou got to see it twice! Cool.
I did, indeed, see it twice. The second time was a mere three hours after the first time, too! This was more for work reasons than anything else -- had a projection problem that I had to make sure had been properly fixed -- but the mere fact that I wasn't bored out my skull to be watching a movie I'd seen only three hours beforehand speaks well of the movie; I've got problems with it, but ultimately, it WAS very enjoyable ... the second time as much as the first!
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