The less cynical you are, the more you’ll enjoy Super 8. Probably. Simply because you’ll be able to forgive more readily what feels like a copy of a copy of earlier, better kids-eye-view science fiction, namely from Super 8‘s Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. Your kids might like it though…unless they’ve already seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind or [INSERT any Spielberg movie made before the Award Whoring Color Purple] or any of a dozen movies Super 8 feels like it’s pilfering from in writer/director J.J. Abrams diverting if ultimately disappointing follow-up to 2009’s Star Trek reboot. Perhaps the expectations were too high, as you’d expect when you combine the Alpha Dog and Beta Pup of A-list geekery from the past 35 years in Spielberg and Abrams. You get the feeling Spielberg watched Super 8 thinking to himself, “Nice Try J.J., but I did it so much better years ago.” Even if Spielberg didn’t think that, any viewer familiar with late 70s/early 80s Spielberg will. The movie lays on the nostalgia nice and syrupy thick and forgets that while you’re remembering the good times…there should be a movie that stands on its own there somewhere, not a blueprint for one. You see the archetypes and common tropes for the movies Super 8 references, but all that does is make you want to watch those all the more.

And what does it say when the near-magical end credits are the most engaging part of the movie? It says that Super 8 is barely a step up from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and do with that what you will.

Time for some SPOILER TALK! Below are SPOILERS for Super 8. Feel free to add your thoughts in the Comments section.

Super 8
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Starring: Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Ron Eldard
Release Date: June 10, 2011
 
In the general dismay of cinema during these hot summer months there is a movie hopeful enough to fly upon the road toward originality. It despises most stupidity and harbors and displays a profound contempt for the immense reluctance directors and screenwriters exhibit when trying to craft a “refreshing” summer film. Super 8 swerves sharply in its walk, detaching itself from the summer films that find it a necessity to stir its audience into a panic via overwhelming action scenes, and passes other uninspiring films because it never shows a reluctance to engage with the consciousness, sensibilities, and behaviors found evident in all children. By engaging itself in this childhood realm the film approaches an innocence unrealized in mainstream cinema and doesn’t hesitate in grasping it. The results are penetrating, illuminating, and ultimately moving.
 
Director and screenwriter J.J. Abrams is working in rarefied air for the bulk of his third feature (Mission Impossible III and Star Trek his other features), exclusively occupying Super 8 in a space where only Mr. Steven Spielberg, this film’s producer, successfully prevailed in films such as E.T. and The Goonies. Embarking on a journey to capture the essential emotions found thriving in children is a task that is difficult to exactly pinpoint and to make it engaging for an adult crowd is even more difficult.

The 2011 MTV Movie Awards aired live earlier this evening, and if you know anything about this particular awards show, you’ll know it’s a popularity contest. The movies nominated appear to teens and young adults and the winners are determined by that demographic, which, judging by the large amount of Twilight wins each year, I’m guessing is mostly females.

If you love Twilight, then this awards show should be good to go for another year for you, when the final movie is released. This year, the film franchise’s vampire star Robert Pattinson was pretty much the star of the show, winning for Best Male Actor, Best Kiss (with co-star Kristen Stewart), Best Fight Scene (with co-star Bryce Dallas Howard). He also was one of the actors who presented the Generation Award to Reese Witherspoon.

Aside from the seeing your favorite stars from consistently nominated film franchises like Twilight and Harry Potter, as well as whatever lesbian kiss was in a movie that year, the 2011 MTV Movie Awards always has a few world premieres from upcoming movies. This year, the show debuted exclusive footage from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and Super 8.

You can watch those videos here below.

It’s time to get out your favorite shorts and tropical shirts, the summer movie season is upon us once again.

As always, we at Geeks of Doom present our guide to some of the more anticipated titles on the way so that you can figure out the ones you want to mark off on your calender and the ones you want to skip altogether.

This year we’ll also be jumping back to an older format of ours as well, where we discuss the anticipation element and potential suckage factor of the movies that are coming out.

You can check out the entire list of summer movies by clicking on over to the other side now, and please share what you’re most looking forward to in the comments below!

We’ve seen the teaser trailer that director J.J. Abrams made for his highly-anticipated new movie, Super 8, before he even had a cast. We’ve seen the TV spot that debuted during the Super Bowl last month. But until you’ve seen this brand new full-length theatrical trailer, you simply haven’t seen anything yet.

For those who don’t know, Super 8 is not only produced by the living legend himself, Steven Spielberg, but it’s also a homage to his films of the ’70s and ’80s. That’s how the film was described anyway — you never really know how much words like that are just fluff in hopes of building excitement. Now we can rest easy, as the new trailer shows that even with the usage of some CGI, there is hope that the magic of Spielberg’s classic science fiction films has indeed been captured once again.

You can see the brilliant new theatrical trailer for Super 8 by clicking on over to the other side now.