Super 80 Abrams and Spielberg suddenly made for us an unexpected, multi-genre film, which is not so much disappointing, but brings confusion to the ranks of the audience, in recent years, accustomed to the “monogenre” cinema sharpened under the necessary ratings.
Tolstoy (in the sense, “not subtle”) thread goes through the whole picture, the so-called romantic part, in which the acting characters are involved. There is so much of it that sometimes there is a feeling that there will be no cinema. The suspense spring is too tight to tighten with the right effort and the right timing. The viewer will also have to endure a rather far-fetched plot line of relations between “fathers and children”, the presence of which in the plot suggests that Spielberg’s punctuation on this matter has long become some kind of mania, on the basis of which specialists in the field of family psychology can write more than one dissertation.
In short, the action-thirsty yawn and demand to start what they are gathered for.
And especially the patient, of course, will wait.
Since the sci-fi part is removed tasty, equipped with impressive sound effects, makes the weaker floor shudder, convulsively snuggling against its strong halves, which themselves are not averse to once again squeeze into the chairs from the next surprise.
What is especially abundant in the film is the curtsey towards the wonderful, naive, kind, funny, but at the same time quite scientific and quite fantastic movie of the 80s. Both Spielberg and Abrams, who love that era endlessly, clearly invested their hearts in re-creating the sometimes elusive vibes of those unique years. The music of Blondie, sounding in the Sony Walkman, fear of the “red threat”, Dad’s Oldsmobile not as a luxury, but as a means of transportation. The atmosphere is impressive and falls in love with itself from the very first frames.
In the end, the question remains: who will watch this?
13-year-old viewers, whose peers are active on the screen, parents show this film to beware - after all, violence and excessively rumbling scenes in the film a lot.
16-17-year-old viewers, to whom all this is already quite possible to show without fear for their mental state, of course, pretend to be snobs, pretending that “younger love” is not interesting to them. In fact, who takes seriously at this age to brothers-sisters 3-4 years younger?
Apparently, there are only open and condescending adults who should be warned that this is a highly romanticized sci-fi action movie, with a fairly simple and far-fetched plot.
However, among the adult audience there are those who will appreciate the film not as a simple teenage thriller, but as a tribute to the era of the 80s in general and the cinema of those years in particular. Such a viewer will leave the hall grateful for the unexpected reminder, and at home, probably, even dust off the forgotten VHS tapes with “E.T.”, “Balbes” and “Close contacts of the third degree” standing on the shelf.
PS. Don’t rush out of the movie theater with the opening credits. It is at this point that the film fully lives up to its title.
7 out of 10
Original