Super 8

theconductor221

JJ Abrams new film coming out this summer, from wikipedia:
"Set in 1979 Ohio, a group of six young children use a Super 8 camera to make their own zombie movie. One night while filming near a remote stretch of railroad tracks, the children witness a truck collide with an oncoming train leading to a catastrophic derailment. Amidst the fire and destruction, something inhuman emerges"
More importantly however, is the trailer released today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtn5dm9uYi8
Thoughts? Discussion?

Personally I think it looks amazing, and I'm loving every bit of it.

Caveman Paws

I don't see why they are giving ALF a movie so long after the show ended.

Based soley from the trailer it looks like a more violent version of E.T. and I'm not that excited about it (will wait for reviews).

matt has a problem

Christ Spielberg, if you wanted to remake Close Encounters, just fucking remake Close Encounters. The first trailer got me all stoked for some kind of alien/secret government plot movie, instead I get the fucking Hardy Boys meet the Space Monster.

Deebaser

matthasaproblem wrote: »

the fucking Hardy Boys meet the Space Monster.

?

Havelock

Holy crap I remember that movie.


I feel so old

Deebaser

I had that movie on VHS...

matt has a problem

I saw it in the theater.

Xenogear_0001

Boy. He's really pissed.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Cherrn

Just show me the monster, goddamn it.

dlinfiniti

Cherrn wrote: »

Just show me the monster, goddamn it.

man is the monster

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

ElJeffe

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Explorers.

That was the bestest movie.

Wassermelone

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

Xenogear_0001

ElJeffe wrote: »

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Explorers.

That was the bestest movie.

Ditto. Need to check the library to see if I can find it.

Also, I'm not against hiding the monster. Seems like movies nowadays want to rub your face in their wonderful cg to the detriment of suspense.

Caveman Paws

ElJeffe wrote: »

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Flight of the Navigator.

That was the bestest movie.

matt has a problem

Caveman Paws wrote: »

ElJeffe wrote: »

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Flight of the Navigator.

That was the bestest movie.

Disney's working on a remake of that.



*punches elderly person holding a baby holding a kitten*

dlinfiniti

is that the kid thats a robot the flies a plane?
what movie was that?
they should remake that one

matt has a problem

What sucks more is, there's a guy who runs a website that critiques movies involving time travel, the mistakes they make etc. from a science perspective, and he came up with a frigging awesome possibility for a sequel to Navigator.

We note that when Davey came home in the A-B timeline, this was no longer his home. Someone else lived there. His parents had moved to another house in Fort Lauderdale. I am forced to ask why this happened. Why do people move? Since they did not leave the area, we would conclude that it was not a relocation based on business. People don't move across town because they've been transferred, unless they work in the building in which they live (such as a building superintendent who lives in an apartment where the tenants can find him). People move across town because they need more space, or they cannot use the space they have, or they can no longer afford the property, or the neighborhood is going bad--or reasons along those lines. Since the Freemans lost one son, and still hoped he would one day return, they did not need more room, and would not give up room (Jeff said Mom never changed David's bedroom). The couple in the house when he returned seemed like good and well-to-do people, so it is not likely that the Freemans saw their property values collapsing or needed to move somewhere safer. I see only three reasons why they might have left. They might have moved because their financial situation worsened for reasons which have nothing to do with the loss of their son. They might have left because the stresses of losing a son created other problems which led to an inability to afford the house--they might have spent too much money trying to find him, or lost work or failed to gain promotions or raises because they lost focus through worry for their child. They might have left because the house reminded them of him constantly, and caused them too much grief. I personally am betting on the second reason. As long as they hoped David might return, they would try to stay in the house whatever pain it caused; and although the house to which they moved is not the beautiful waterfront property from which they moved, neither is it such a great fall from what they had that they might not have stayed there had they not been distracted. Thus, in the C-D timeline, Davey 1 (the temporal duplicate) lives with his parents, brother, and dog in the house by the marina. Perhaps he even goes out with Jennifer, despite Jeff's teasing. Also, they set off the fireworks that night, celebrating Independence Day.

For eight years, Davey's life will seem very normal to everyone. He might mention his adventure to those closest to him--a best buddy, a girlfriend--especially since his possession of the alien creature will stand as proof (and reminder). Then, one day when Davey 1 is twenty years old, an event occurs which will shake his world: Davey 2 will come home.

Max 2 will reason the same way as Max 1: this creature is too fragile to travel through time, and should be left in the same place at a later time. Davey 2 will no more know what has happened to him than Davey 1 did. He will pull himself out of the ravine, leave the woods, cross the tracks, and go home--where he will find his family still living. However, if the A-B timeline is something out of the Twilight Zone, so is the C-D timeline. His parents never knew he was gone, because he never was gone. His temporal duplicate has been living with them all this time, and they are not likely to have come to grips with the idea that their boy crossed the galaxy and returned, visited them in the future, and came back to the past, whether Davey had tried to convince them of this or not. And I would dare to venture that Davey 1 does not know when this will happen; I know that I don't know. He knows that it will happen in 1986, probably while he is twenty years old (Jeff was only estimating, and could have been off by a year--remember, most of us are two different ages during any one calendar year). But no one ever mentioned what the date was beyond the year, so he probably doesn't know. He can't meet Davey and Max in the woods and tell them what to do--he can't be there every evening to see if tonight's the night. He can't guarantee that he will be home when it happens.

This actually could make an interesting movie of its own: Flight of the Navigator Part 2. What happens when Davey 2 comes home? If the door is locked, he'll bang on it and yell threats at Jeff until someone opens it. If the door is open already, he'll go inside, throw his book bag somewhere, grab something from the fridge, and go to his room. Or maybe he'll start yelling for that little brother he's still mad at for scaring him in the woods a few minutes ago. If he reaches his room, he will immediately notice that it is different--apart from the fact that the fireworks were shot off eight years before, our twenty-year-old Davey is going to have different ideas about how to set up a room than our twelve-year-old Davey did. But this time there is someone who knows what happened. Davey himself is already here--Davey 1, delivered by Max eight years before. So it is unlikely that we will involve Detective Banks of the Juvenile Division of the Fort Lauderdale Police, or that we will rush to the hospital to be thoroughly examined by a dozen confused doctors. And now we start to run into problems. Because somehow Davey 2 has to get back to Max 2 and return to 1978. If he fails to do so, then once again we revert to the A-B timeline in which Davey is lost, and his parents lose the house because of this--an infinity loop is created.

Fortunately, Max 2 will have crashed into those same power lines which were the undoing of Max 1. Nothing which has changed will affect that event. Therefore, Max needs to find Davey to get the navigation charts so that he can continue his mission. But Davey has no idea where the crash occurred, and cannot find out now. Dr. Faraday will collect Max and take him to the NASA research hanger. But he won't get that data about the boy at the hospital who has the image in his head--or will he?

Davey 1 could go either of two ways with this. On the one hand, the experience in the hospital and later at NASA was terrifying for him, a chapter in his life he'd like to erase--and this is his chance to erase it. On the other hand, the complications of getting Max and Davey 2 together at this point are so great that Davey 1 could view the hospital experience as the only way it can be done. The hospital might view the temporal original--Davey 2--as perhaps a clone of the temporal duplicate--Davey 1; they might begin their studies with an effort to prove that Davey 2 is not Davey 1, but it will not be easy. They will have the same fingerprints (which is not true even of identical twins, and clones are nothing other than identical twins of different ages). It is possible that Dave and Jeff were not careful with their secret, and that Dave was already "classified" as delusional in some form, and that he wants to prove that the classification is incorrect, that he really did come from the past to the future and back to the past in 1978; that his pet is an alien life form, not some previously undiscovered endangered species of the Everglades.

However, Davey 1 will tell Davey 2 that it will be necessary for him to go back to 1978 with Max; he will also help him accomplish this by some means. He could actually do it in an extremely straightforward way. Call NASA, ask for Dr. Faraday, and make him an offer: you have my ship; it crashed into some power lines. I need it. I will agree to permit you to have a great deal of information (which is probably still stored in his head) about that ship and some of the places it has traveled, in exchange for access to the ship. Davey 2 could then take the ship and leave, bypassing all the interim adventures of trying to get home, and go to 1978, while Davey 1 goes to work for NASA. I doubt whether Davey 1 would trust NASA after what they did to him last time (which for them never happened, but for him is only too real).

They could of course set up Davey 2 to go through the same channels as Davey 1; but Dr. Faraday isn't stupid, and will realize that there are two Daveys of different ages, not clones, and therefore temporally duplicated, probably by the ship. This leaves only one alternative: they have to steal the ship somehow. This would be the primary adventure of the movie, I'm sure. Once they have the ship, Davey 2 is out of there, straight to 1978. The fact that they have no fireworks to use to signal the ship doesn't matter, because Davey 2 is not going to try to get home to 1986 this time, but to 1978 directly. If Davey 1 is caught, he spills the entire story, and trades the information in his head and his pet alien (which would be regarded as first contact) for assurances of his own freedom. If he's not caught, NASA denies all rumors of a flying saucer, and time moves on.

Caveman Paws

matthasaproblem wrote: »

Caveman Paws wrote: »

ElJeffe wrote: »

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Flight of the Navigator.

That was the bestest movie.

Disney's working on a remake of that.



*punches elderly person holding a baby holding a kitten*

If Justin Bieber stars in it my fall to the darkside shall be complete.

matt has a problem

Seriously:

Then, one day when Davey 1 is twenty years old, an event occurs which will shake his world: Davey 2 will come home.

I would wait in line to see that sequel.

Havelock

Caveman Paws wrote: »

ElJeffe wrote: »

I guess I'm interested in Super 8, but mostly now I just want to rewatch Flight of the Navigator.

That was the bestest movie.

That was such a great movie.

Oh god nostalgia

Kronus

It reminds me of Goonies but with explosions and aliens, so yeah I'm on board.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

they used to play flight of the navigator on tv all the goddamned time. Haven't seen it in quite a while, though

Cherrn

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

That's only true if it's a poor design. You see the xenomorph constantly in every Alien movie, and it still looks awesome and terrifying.

In the case of Cloverfield, I can understand why they kept it a secret. I loved that movie to death, but the monster itself was goofy as shit. I suspect the same is the case here. Deliberately not showing it is really annoying me, for some reason.

DiannaoChong

Can we still trust Spielberg? This trailer makes me want to.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Cherrn wrote: »

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

That's only true if it's a poor design. You see the xenomorph constantly in every Alien movie, and it still looks awesome and terrifying.

In the case of Cloverfield, I can understand why they kept it a secret. I loved that movie to death, but the monster itself was goofy as shit. I suspect the same is the case here. Deliberately not showing it is really annoying me, for some reason.

The "what is the monster" thing is dumb because the monster's appearance isn't what is interesting about it. Where it came from, what it's doing, why it's here, all of these things are interesting. "What does it look like" really isn't, since we know it's going to be some kind of alien thing. It just comes across as a really shallow way of building dramatic tension. Especially when the characters presumably already know what it looks like.

Xenogear_0001

Cherrn wrote: »

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

That's only true if it's a poor design. You see the xenomorph constantly in every Alien movie, and it still looks awesome and terrifying.

In the case of Cloverfield, I can understand why they kept it a secret. I loved that movie to death, but the monster itself was goofy as shit. I suspect the same is the case here. Deliberately not showing it is really annoying me, for some reason.

Well, to be fair, that's because the designs for the xenomorph came from the work of H.R. Giger--truly a disturbed individual. All of his work has that look, and it's terrifying. I read somewhere that he was trying to portray the demons of Hell how he envisioned them. Makes sense:

http://lcart3.narod.ru/image/fantasy/giger/ot/hr_giger_mordor_VI.jpg

Looking at the man, he kind of reminds me of Chekov from the original Star Trek series:

Caveman Paws

Xenogear_0001 wrote: »

Cherrn wrote: »

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

That's only true if it's a poor design. You see the xenomorph constantly in every Alien movie, and it still looks awesome and terrifying.

In the case of Cloverfield, I can understand why they kept it a secret. I loved that movie to death, but the monster itself was goofy as shit. I suspect the same is the case here. Deliberately not showing it is really annoying me, for some reason.

Well, to be fair, that's because the designs for the xenomorph came from the work of H.R. Giger--truly a disturbed individual. All of his work has that look, and it's terrifying. I read somewhere that he was trying to portray the demons of Hell how he'd envision them looking. Makes sense:

http://lcart3.narod.ru/image/fantasy/giger/ot/hr_giger_mordor_VI.jpg

Looking at the man, he kind of reminds me of Chekov from the original Star Trek series:

Reminds me of that creepy guy who used to drive around playgrounds really slowly.

Linespider5

I know there's this feeling of wonder and all in the new trailer, but, I can't help but feel some of the same misgivings from the exclusion of the monster or whatever it is.

Mainly, in Cloverfield, it wasn't like you actually saw the monster, really at all, until the very end.

This feels different, like, when you see the movie, the scenes they're showing now will include the monster in these scenes. Which reads to me more like deliberately misdirecting the portrayal of the plot.

Not like tons of movies don't do this anyway with their trailers, trying to disguise the potential perception of their work.

Just that, you know, usually it's bad movies that do this sort of thing.

Or inept trailer makers.

JihadJesus

Okay screw this movie, I want that guy's sequel to the Flight of the Navigator.

Xenogear_0001

I agree.

Caveman Paws

I bet the monster is invisible, an invisible "fuck you."

BloodySloth

Cherrn wrote: »

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

That's only true if it's a poor design. You see the xenomorph constantly in every Alien movie, and it still looks awesome and terrifying.

In the case of Cloverfield, I can understand why they kept it a secret. I loved that movie to death, but the monster itself was goofy as shit. I suspect the same is the case here. Deliberately not showing it is really annoying me, for some reason.

You actually see very little of the bad guy in Alien, and that's part of why the movie worked so well. That changed in Aliens, because Aliens was an action movie and we need to see shit die, and from then on we had seen so much of the monster that hiding it would have just felt trite.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Xenogear_0001

Yeah, Giger tapped into a rich vein of primordial terror when he designed them. He was particularly good at that.

matt has a problem

Caveman Paws wrote: »

I bet the monster is invisible, an invisible "fuck you."

If we're running the standard "Spielberg movie with an alien/monster" playbook, the monster isn't even a monster, it's just misunderstood/scared.

Close Encounters: Misunderstood
E.T.: Scared
Gremlins: Fine as long as you follow the rules
Batteries Not Included: Misunderstood
Harry and the Hendersons: Misunderstood and scared


I'm leaving out War of the Worlds because that's not his.


Also, damn you Spielberg, damn you to hell.

Caveman Paws

matthasaproblem wrote: »

Also, damn you Spielberg, damn you to hell.

Hahahaha. I can't wait for Bad Boys 3: In 3D

Magus`

House on Haunted Hill (the newer one) had some nice 'monster' designs. One of the few movies I liked the designs of.

Godfather

Wassermelone wrote: »

Eat It. Eat it, You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

seriously, I hate the whole mystery monster thing. Like everyone saw the dumb fucking cloverfield trailer and went "yeah, that's the way to promote a movie!"

Seeing the monster takes away the interest. Its solved. Its no longer unknowable. This is why horror games are not scary... except for Amnesia. Where you don't really see the monster.

I see your point exactly, but the whole concept still pisses me off for some reason.


It feels like a very Shyamalan thing to do, only replace "stupid twist" with "mediocre monster reveal."

CycloneRanger

electricitylikesme wrote: »

Man, Xenomorphs are still easily the scariest fucking alien monsters ever.

They look wrong in every capacity. I mean jesus, I remember playing AvP multiplayer as colonial marines, and even when my friends were playing as the damn alien side they were scary as fuck.

Eh, I don't know. I think the Thing from... well, from The Thing has the xenomorphs beat.

The xenomorphs are ultimately just predators; like tigers or wolves. They hunt with their cunning and natural weaponry. The Thing was terrifying when it was just an animal and acting from instinct--but then, midway through, you see that it was constructing a vehicle under the snow--that it can think.

Overall I think the best approach in horror films like this is to keep the monster hidden for a while--but to progressively reveal more about it. You can get the best of both worlds that way. At first it's a complete mystery, but then slowly the pieces fall together. It does feel like a cheap move to never get around to revealing anything.