As I stated before this film is directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. From my understanding JJ wanted to make a film that is an homage to Steven and his scifi films from the 1980's like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The child stars are relatively unknowns. You will recognize Kyle Chandler who plays the deputy and father of our lead actor Joel Courtney aka Joe and Ron Eldard plays Alice's father Louis. Most of the children are like I said before, unknowns, but fit the roles perfectly and were enjoyable to watch on screen. Noah Emmerich is also a familiar face as the baddy Nelec. You will recognize him from such films as The Truman Show and Frequency among others such as the JJ Abrams tv show LOST. Their isn't much more to say about the cast because well they are kind of unknowns for the most part.
Let's get to the story. It's good. It's not totally ingenious and blew me away but it is still a good story. The film revolves around a group of kids (Joe, Carey, Charles, Martin and Alice) in a small town in Ohio are filming a zombie horror film with a Super 8 camera when one night they decide to film a pivotal scene down at the local train station. It is late at night and a train comes racing by the station when a mile down the tracks a truck careens into the engine causing the whole train to wreck and derail. What is uncertain is where the train is coming from. Where it is heading to and what is in it? It's an Air Force train and it is heading from Area 51 in Nevada to an undisclosed location in Ohio carrying an alien among other things. In a nutshell the train wrecks and releases an alien that has been held prisoner by the US Government and wants to go home. E.T. phone home. In the meantime the alien wreaks havoc on the small town the film is set in by stealing parts from cars to build it's spaceship and eating random people.
Our friends that are filming their movie are thrown into the middle of everything and find themselves to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At times this movie reminded me of The Goonies but only slightly. The children had chemistry similar to the kids in The Goonies. It is based in 1979 and does have the feel of an old 80's movie but just slightly also. We find out the man that crashes into the train is a local school teacher who previously was a scientist that actually studied and vowed to have the creature released to go home. He was grabbed by the alien once and the alien knew he was not there to harm him and let him live. The town is eventually evacuated but the group of friends find themselves emerged in the finale between the Air Force and the alien before the alien is finally able to piece together enough parts to create his ship and leave Earth once and for all.
Probably the most dramatic and one thing that keeps this movie together is the story of Joe's mother who is killed in an accident at work. All he has left from her is a locket with a picture of her in it that he keeps in his pocket always. We find out in time that Alice's father who is a drunk was supposed to be at work but was too drunk to come in so she took the job instead and died. Joe's father has been unable to forgive Alice's dad and they finally do in the end. Their is also a pivotal scene where the alien grabs Joe and see's his pain and looks at him in the eyes and let's him live because the alien realizes that he wishes him no harm like the scientist before.
Thinking about this film. I really still don't know how to react. This is a good film. I guess it's just not exactly what I was thinking it was going to be but still it was if that makes any sense. It was a genuine story and didn't feel all too rehashed but not super fresh either. I saw it in IMAX but don't pay the extra money for it. I was half wanting to go to see the theater in anticipation for Transformers and I will totally be seeing that in IMAX 3D! Overall this film is not a waste of money and will be had by most people out there.
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