Alien movies are pretty much universally awesome.\u00a0 Even the bad ones have something going for them in the form of a grotesque, salivating creature bent on devouring some random buxom blond.\u00a0 Most of the time though, alien movies are just kick ass.\u00a0 When making an alien movie, you have two choices.\u00a0 Make the alien friendly or make them fearsome.\u00a0 Most of the time they go with fearsome.\u00a0 JJ Abrams decided he wanted all of the above.<\/p>\n
I would expect nothing less from you JJ.<\/p>\n
Since Super 8<\/em> has been out for a couple of weeks now (sorry, went to Iowa, remember?) and I just got around to seeing it last night, this review is less of a review of the movie itself and more about the experience as a whole.<\/p>\n What made this movie such an experience?<\/p>\n Well, my nerdy friends, I have four letters for you.\u00a0 D-Box.\u00a0 Learn them, remember them, go out and find them at a movie theatre near you. Only for a completely new theatrical experience (and to hang out with Hayden, my friend, and frequent companion in all things nerdy) would I drive for an hour and a half in Los Angeles rush hour traffic.\u00a0 Let me tell you, it was worth it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not revealing a whole lot of SPOILERS, but in typical HNG fashion, I always reveal something, so beware.<\/p>\n When the seat rumbles to life it definitely catches you off guard.\u00a0 The first time it happened I thought I was sitting on my cell phone before I remembered that I was sitting in a specially designed chair programmed to move along with the action in the movie.\u00a0 If it had been a different movie I may have been turned on by it (haha, j\/k\u2026sort of) but luckily aliens with six appendages don\u2019t really do it for me.\u00a0 At first it only moved when a car would roll by so it would surprise me every time.\u00a0 But once the real action started I quickly became adapted and decided that I never want to watch a movie while sitting still ever again.\u00a0 The train crash scene in particular was SPECTACULAR and I sat there with the biggest, goofiest grin plastered on my face while I got jerked around from side-to-side and up-and-down.\u00a0 Afterwards, I had goose bumps.\u00a0 Hayden and I kept looking at each other with those \u201cno fucking way!\u201d expressions you get when experiencing something totally epic.<\/p>\n [youtube:http:\/\/youtu.be\/iBbEaEUqtnY]<\/p>\n Strangely, the theatre only had three rows of D-Box seats in it so I\u2019m not sure how the people in the regular seats behind us managed to sit through the movie without being distracted by our rows moving around in front of them.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s less obvious if you\u2019re not sitting in them?\u00a0 All I know is that the seats are so huge that my feet didn\u2019t touch the floor and you can\u2019t turn and bury your head in your friends shoulder.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, I was on my own with only my sweater to cover my eyes when Elle Fanning did her super creepy zombie impression (GAH!!!)<\/p>\n The tickets are more expensive, so heads up about that.\u00a0 We may or may not have pretended to be Senior citizens when ordering them online…<\/p>\n I guess I should stop talking about the vibrating chairs and discuss the movie already (even though I know a lot of you have already seen it and chided me for being late to the party \ud83d\ude09 ).\u00a0 This is one of those movies that has it all.\u00a0 Humor and horror are somehow woven seamlessly together in ways that don\u2019t feel cheesy or forced in the slightest.\u00a0 The kids are hysterical.\u00a0 Charles and Cary in particular.\u00a0 I\u2019m not gonna lie, it was a little bizarre watching Nan Flanagan<\/a> play a Susie Homemaker but that was the only time I was pulled out of the story.\u00a0 Kyle Chandler had some nice moments when he got to play action hero but otherwise I didn\u2019t take much notice of him.\u00a0 My main focus was always on the kids.\u00a0 Kids who showed off some extremely impressive acting skillz if I do say so myself.<\/p>\n [youtube:http:\/\/youtu.be\/tCRQQCKS7go]<\/p>\n Is this the ET<\/em> for the next generation?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 ET<\/em> touched a collective, world-wide nerve that I don\u2019t think can be replicated.\u00a0 Super 8<\/em> has come closest though and really, it\u2019s because of the kids.\u00a0 The alien is large and scary but that doesn\u2019t keep Joe from making a connection with him (I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s a him?) and helping him get home, sacrificing his most precious possession to do so.<\/p>\n As Charles would say, \u201cThat was mint!\u201d<\/p>\n