New Trailer Friday

Super 8

The sad thing about being immersed in the entertainment world is that rarely do you get to experience the pleasure of being surprised by something new and unexpected. 

Fortuantely, this film project had successfully evaded my knowledge, and to my great satisfaction, I got the full blast of awesome when in front of Iron Man 2, I saw a teaser for a JJ Abrams/Steven Spielberg directorial collaboration.

Since I'm probably spoiling this for you, I'll let that sink in for a moment.

<wait for it>

<wait for it>

JJ Abrams AND Steven Spielberg...both directing!!!

If that weren't mind-destroying enough, the premise, somewhat akin to the Abram's project Cloverfield, is a group of kids playing around with their Super 8 movie camera when they happen upon something "sinister," and if the trailer's overt visual nods to Close Encounters are any hint, it looks like that something is likely to be extra-terrestrial in nature. 

The film isn't supposed to be comprised of "found footage" like Cloverfield, but I imagine we'll see a mix of traditional, Spielberg-ian cinematography, with JJ Abrams signature "cinema veritae" style of horror unfolding through the lense of skin-crawlingly realistic Super 8 style footage.

I recently rewatched Cloverfield for the first time since I saw it in theatres, and while there are obvious flaws with the shaky, handicam style, I have to admit that it's incredibly effective at selling the relationship between a horrific/fantastic event with the characters on the screen.  The question is whether the Super 8's vintage style will take away from the realism of a scene (like watching historical footage from WWII).  Abrams & Spielberg being the clever types, I imagine the style will be used more to obscure horror, thus making it that much more intense, rather than simply retreading what Cloverfield, Blair Witch, Quarantine, and many others have done with a modern video style.  It's also quite possible that a majority of the film, like the trailer, will be shot conventionally.

Also, talk about a crazy dream-team.  I'm convinced Spielberg still has another great film in him, he just needs to distance himself from certain influences... you know who I'm talking about.  JJ Abrams feels like exactly the kind of person that Spielberg needs to be around, someone with fresh, inventive, and sometimes wild and crazy ideas about film making, much like Spielberg in his youth.  And Abrams likewise could benefit from a few lessons in masterful storytelling, engaging characters, and beautiful shot composition from one of film's greatest legends.

Collaborations like these either go one of two ways.  This will either be one of the best films of next year, or, pardon the irony, a massive trainwreck.  

I vote for the former, but then again, I haven't seen Indy 4 in a while...