Super 8
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 10, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 9, 2011
The pacing is superb, quick and agile without being frenzied, and the special effects are jaw-dropping. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJun 8, 2011
Loving, Playful, and spectacularly well made, Super 8 is easily the best summer movie of the year - of many years. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 8, 2011
A movie of here-and-now thrills, goosed by judicious CGI effects that never overpower the humanity of the situation. Read full review
100
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 8, 2011
J.J. Abrams, with Steven Spielberg producing, has made one of those jaw-dropping out-of-body summer entertainments that kids old enough to swear and see PG-13 films will remember on into adulthood. Read full review
100
TimeRichard CorlissJun 2, 2011
The year's most thrilling, FEELING mainstream movie. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 9, 2011
This new film isn't perfect, and may not be a world-changer, but it's certainly a world-pleaser. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 9, 2011
It's an expertly constructed thrill ride with wonderful atmosphere and tremendous good humor; if its heart of gold is artificial, that won't stop you from enjoying the heck out of it. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 10, 2011
Super 8 is in many ways a perfect summer movie: smart, exciting, heartfelt, and suffused with nostalgia. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 9, 2011
This sci-fi thriller has an engrossing plot and a strong cast of fully drawn characters. There's even a sweet youthful love story. In other words, it's a summer blockbuster firing on all cylinders. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 8, 2011
A wonderful film, nostalgia not for a time but for a style of filmmaking, when shell-shocked young audiences were told a story and not pounded over the head with aggressive action. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 9, 2011
It's spirited and funny and deeply entertaining, a summer movie for kids who think like adults and adults who feel like kids. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJun 8, 2011
Creepy implications keep Super 8 engaging, but the cast makes it click. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanJul 31, 2011
It's nowhere close to "E. T." - what is? - but amongst the hullabaloo of summer, Super 8 is something to cherish: a beautifully made homage to better times, and better movies. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 8, 2011
It is just a tremendous amount of fun. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanJun 7, 2011
A big-bang demolition derby, J.J. Abrams's much-anticipated, greatly enjoyable Super 8 seems bound for box-office glory. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 9, 2011
Such a disarming homage to the cinema of the Reagan era that even grouchy gremlins might feel like it's morning in America. But be forewarned that if this movie is exposed to sunlight, you'll notice the puppet strings. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 9, 2011
The unforced performances of Courtney and Fanning are remarkable. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJun 9, 2011
It's an enjoyable, well-acted, old-school geekfest pitting a group of middle-school students against an escaped monster from outer space. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 9, 2011
This movie, a true beauty, will put a spell on you. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsJun 9, 2011
Its pleasures are borrowed, but durable. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 9, 2011
Super 8 takes its place among the best B-grade science fiction movies of this generation by copying the best of the past 50 years. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 9, 2011
There's a thin line, though, between honoring what came before you and replicating it, and Super 8 occasionally wobbles over that line into predictability. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 8, 2011
Abrams knits together the ordinary stories of the mill town's inhabitants in a way that feels dramatic without showing their contrivances too obviously. And his casting of Courtney and Fanning was fortuitous, though Abrams' banter for the supporting kids grows tiresome in that "Goonies" way. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 5, 2011
Like an old airplane (or spacecraft) jerry-rigged from scrap pieces and made air-worthy again, Super 8 has been patched together with 30-year-old spare parts to provide an enjoyable ride of its own. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 9, 2011
Ultimately, it's the period and character details in Super 8 that provide the grist for its winning formula, rather than its emotional arc and monster jolts. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 9, 2011
The timing couldn't be more opportunistic for a new Steven Spielberg movie that mines the thrilling uncertainties of childhood - even if it happens to have been made by J.J. Abrams. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 9, 2011
All the kids here are terrific, significantly better than the actual movie that surrounds them. Although ostensibly fashioned by Abrams, it's really a summer-weight Spielberg yarn. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 9, 2011
All too often the plot feels calculated rather than organic, the result of a time-tested formula rather than genuine innovation. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensJun 9, 2011
Super 8 is at its best when it dwells in this secret childhood empire, and at its worst when it juices up its essentially simple story with increasingly senseless action set pieces. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 9, 2011
Like his (Abrams) previous features, "Mission: Impossible III" and "Star Trek," Super 8 is an enticing package without much inside. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 9, 2011
This uneven but often charming movie produced by Spielberg gets so many things right, including its practiced naivete. What's missing, however, is a crucial sense of connection to itself. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 9, 2011
This melding of two cinematic sensibilities, though effective at moments, is finally not as exciting or involving as it we'd like it to be. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 7, 2011
Had the big boy himself, Steven Spielberg, made his directorial debut with this slam-bang sci-fi thriller set in suburban 1979 (and not merely produced what amounts to an homage), he would have been celebrated as a gifted bringer of mayhem: a Michael Bay before there was one. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 6, 2011
It would be easy to dismiss as 100 percent ersatz if it didn't rekindle at least some of the old excitement - and if the magic of Spielberg's older movies didn't filter through, like light from a distant galaxy. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 10, 2011
If Abrams had stuck with the kids and cut way back on all the sci-fi hoo-ha, his film might have stood a fighting chance of being charming. Big is not always better, even when it comes to fantasies. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallJun 9, 2011
Writer-director J.J. Abrams overloads this sci-fi adventure with so many homages to his co-producer Steven Spielberg that it plays like the elder director's greatest hits, minus his characteristic scares and sense of wonder. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 8, 2011
The actors are talented enough to carry the movie, but they fade into the background once things grow dire, and the special effects take over. There's no sense of wonder or awe. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 8, 2011
The best thing about Super 8, by far, are the kids, all perfectly cast. The script does a much better job making them believable and real than the adults...The rest of the movie steals shamelessly from... Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJun 8, 2011
J.J. Abrams's latest puts a modern spin on classical material, though here reinvention isn't the goal so much as slavish duplication embellished with muscular CG effects. Read full review
50
VarietyJun 5, 2011
A relatively standard monster movie. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineTodd GilchristJun 2, 2011
It's in the moments Abrams attempts to combine emotional payoffs with popcorn-style thrills that the film rings most false. Read full review
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