Super 8 Reviews Start Cautiously Optimistic

The first Super 8 review comments were finally revealed Wednesday. For months, the mysterious trailers have teased and excited movie goers who hope for the next great alien adventure. Since Super 8 features the potential super team-up of director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg, the movie may have impossible expectations to live up to. Indeed, while the early reviews are fairly positive, there are a few reservations mixed in so far.

Rotten Tomatoes has collected seven early reviews, with six of them rating "fresh" In fact, the average rating is listed as an 8.8 out of 10, but it might be skewed a bit. The one negative comment, from Badass Digest's Devin Faraci, accuses the film of only working as "cheap nostalgia porn."

This could be the big dividing point for the movie in the days ahead, as many critics may love it for harkening back to Spielberg's old alien films and others may hate it for the same reason. While the ads and trailers hype it up as a thrilling, mysterious creature feature, it is clear that it is more like a coming-of-age story set in the '70s, with aliens mixed in.

Since it seems to combine Abrams' usual cryptic mystery and Spielberg's old childlike wonder at science-fiction, it would appear to be a can't-miss combination for the target audience. To that end, the likes of Harry Knowles are already eating it up, as Knowles even admitted that it's impossible to "look at this film without nostalgia."

That fuels the perfect or near-perfect scores from sites like Dread Central, Total Film and Bloody Disgusting, along with positive write-ups from HitFix's Drew McWeeney, Cinemablend's Katey Rich, and ComingSoon.net's Edward Douglas. Yet Douglas admits that the results are "as aggravating as they are satisfying," while McWeeney was more enthralled by the coming-of-age parts than the alien mystery.

Judging by these first reviews, those who love Abrams, Spielberg, and the era they harken to will likely drown out the skeptics before Super 8 is unveiled to the public June 10. But since the bar was set so high by the A-list talent and the teasers, will the positive scores be high enough to entirely live up to the hype? With some of the early nitpicks so far, it might be a close call.

This weekend, X-Men First Class is getting the most positive review numbers of the summer, despite having low expectations at first. This provides yet another high standard for next weekend's big new movie to overcome -- as if the shadows of Close Encounters, E.T and late '70s alien movies as a whole aren't daunting enough.

Sources

Rotten Tomatoes- "Super 8"

Badass Digest- "SUPER 8 Makes Us Nostalgic For Spielberg Movies (Because They Work)"

Aint It Cool News- "Harry thinks Super 8 is pretty damn super!"