Super 8

Bibliographic Information: Abrams, J., Burk, B., & Spielberg, S. (Producers), & Abrams, J. (Director). (2011). Super 8 [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Plot Summary:  Fourteen-year old Joe Lamb just lost his mother in a factory accident.  His Deputy Sheriff father, Jack Lamb, blames her co-worker, Louis Dainard, for whom she was covering a shift.  A few months after the accident, Joe’s friend Charles enlists his help to make a zombie movie for a film competition.  Together with a group of friends, among them Alice Dainard, Louis’ daughter, they head towards the train depot to film a scene.  While Charles is filming, a pickup truck drives onto the tracks and heads straight towards the train.  When the train and truck collide it causes a wreck of massive proportions.  Joe and his friends escape unharmed, and as they investigate the scene, they find a pile of white cubes.  They walk up to the wrecked truck and find their biology teacher, Dr. Woodward, was the driver.  He warns them to leave and forget everything they saw.  The kids heed his words, and as they flee the scene the U.S. Air Force arrive to survey the damage.   After the crash, strange events start happening in the town, and when the boys watch develop their film, they see a large creature escaped from the train.  What is that creature, and how was Dr. Woodward connected to it?  The boys need to solve this mystery in order to save their community.

Critical Evaluation:  The conflicts between the Joe and Alice’s fathers creates a very interesting situation between them.  Joe’s father blames Alice’s dad for his wife’s death, and forbids him from seeing her.  Alice’s dad does the same thing, but more out of guilt.  Despite their father’s demands, Joe and Alice continue to socialize, and when Alice goes missing after the train wreck, Jack Lamb and Louis Dainard are forced to put aside their differences and rescue Alice.  Super 8 explores the theme of extraterrestrial life.  Because of the mistreatment the alien experienced at the hands of scientists, like Dr. Woodward, the alien took revenge on the community by kidnapping various citizens to use as food.  When Joe, Jack, and Louis find Alice and attempt to free her from the snare of the alien, they are trapped, and the alien grabs Joe.  Joe speaks compassionately to the alien, telling him that “Bad things happen.”  Joe tries to counteract the cruelty dealt to the alien, and who better knows the meaning of “bad things happen” than Joe himself?

Reader’s Annotation: While making a super 8 film, six friends witness a catastrophic train wreck.  Afterwards, strange things happen in their community.  Will the footage of the wreck solve this mystery?

Information about the director:  J.J. Abrams has worked on a number of successful movies like Armageddon (1998), Mission Impossible III (2006), and Star Trek (2009).  He is also the creator of several hit TV series like Alias (2001-2005), Lost (2004-2010), and Fringe (2008-2013).  Not only does he write, produce, and write movies and TV shows, but he also composes music for many of his projects.

    Abrams grew up in Los Angeles, graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and has won many awards for his work.  The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Films awarded him Best Director for Super 8 (Wikipedia, 2013).

Genre: Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1. Description of train wreck.

Reading level/Interest age: 13+

Challenge Issues:  This movies contains “intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language, and some drug use” (IMDb, n.d.)

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I included this movie: Super 8 is a great sci-fi movie for my collection because of its focus on young adult characters.  J.J. Abrams does great work capturing the eerie events that take place in film, which is appealing to young adults.  

References:

IMDb. (n.d.) Super 8. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650062/

Wikipedia. (2013, May 12). J.J. Abrams. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Abrams

YAHOO! Movies. (n.d.). J.J. Abrams- biography. Retrieved from http://movies.yahoo.com/person/jj-abrams/biography.html