Super 8 (Limited Edition Steelbook Reprint) [4K UHD + Digital]
4.7 | 860 ratings
Price: 34.99
Last update: 04-23-2026
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Package Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.5 inches; 2.4 ounces
- Director : J.J. Abrams
- Media Format : 4K
- Run time : 1 hour and 52 minutes
- Release date : June 30, 2026
- Actors : Elle Fanning
- Studio : PARAMOUNT
- ASIN : B0GT1L8WQV
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank:#9 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- Science Fiction Blu-ray Discs
- Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:4.74.7 out of 5 stars(860)
Top reviews from the United States
- Jeremy SneadSUPER 8 - A masterful original story, with omage to Spielbergian Cinema.As a kid who grew up in the late 70's and 80's watching films like ET, Jaws and Close Encounters I was destined to enjoy this movie. For me to say that Super 8 is a nostalgic and entertaining movie would be true. To say that Super 8 is a J.J. Abrams tribute to Spielbergian cinema would be partly true. Partly. There are so many parallels to story, characters, time period and genre that's it near impossible not to immediately start making connections to which Spielberg film is being referenced in any particular scene.
That said, before I get into Spielbergia I must give J.J. Abrams his due as an original artist. Anyone who has watched American television the past decade knows Abrams can deliver solidly on story and character with series like Alias, Lost and Fringe under his belt. However, until now his feature film career has been rooted in existing properties like Mission Impossible III and the new Star Trek. Both highly entertaining and visceral films in my opinion. But with Super 8 being his first original screenplay for a feature film, in some ways this was uncharted territory for Abrams. But with someone like Spielberg as his collaborator and producer and Abrams litany of experience in film-making and storytelling its hard to imagine his first original feature being anything but what we would come to expect from him. Emotional, well plotted, well acted, funny and just plain entertaining.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way lets get to the fun part - the Spielberg parallels! Here's the ones I spotted, in no particular order:
1. The "catalyst" into Act 2 is a spectacular train crash. Any coincidence that the 1st movie Spielberg remember's seeing as a child was 'The Greatest Show on Earth', which also contains one of the biggest train crashes in movie history? In fact, that train crash is said to be what inspired an 8 year Spielberg to shoot his first film; 2 toy trains crashing into each other (also as a way to get away with seeing his toy trains crash over and over without getting them taken away by his father.) Notice the discussion in Super 8 about filming the toy trains crashing into one another, which ultimately they do.
2. The obvious MILITARY parallel of Alien Life in Close Encounters being covered up by a staged viral outbreak that kills anyone or thing that breathes it causing town evacuation. This VS. the Military coverup of Alien Life in Super 8 being a staged grass fire that causes town evacuation.
3. In JAWS the scariest thing about the shark is the NOT seeing it. Same is true in Super 8, we don't fully see the monster until the film is almost finished. Builds suspense much more effectively.
3. Any coincidence the place that that the Alien in Super 8 makes his final takeoff into space from a water "tower". In Close Encounters the Alien Mothership arrives and takes off from Devil's "Tower", Wyoming.
4. The town hall meeting in Super 8 is very reminiscent of the town hall meeting in Close Encounters. All citizens EXCEPT the sheriff seem to be clueless and way off base about whats really going on.
5. The sound that the Alien makes is VERY similar to the sound of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park (as well as the sound of the dying truck in Spielberg's 1st feature 'Duel'.)
6. The main kid, Joe doesn't make good grades, as evidenced by him throwing his C+ papers aside when the Alice sees them (this could easily be a J.J. Abrams childhood connection too however.)
7. In ET & CLOSE ENCOUNTERS the alien makes a "psychic" connection of some kind with the people it interacts with. In ET its Elliott "feeling" what ET feels (i.e. classroom scene with frogs & Elliott getting drunk & Elliott getting sick when ET gets sick, etc.) In Close Encounters its Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon being obsessed with the image of Devil's Tower, which ultimately draws them to it. In Super 8 every human the Alien touches "sees" what the alien feels and has been through, thus sympathizing with it.
8. In ET a group of underdog kids led by Elliott "save the day" for ET. In THE GOONIES a group of underdog kids led by Mikey "save the day" for Mikey's families home which is about to be sold and bulldozed. Same here in Super 8 with Joe, the main kid taking one of the cubes which is close enough to the Water Tower to be drawn to it, thus creating a foundation for the Alien's ship to work from. Remember all the other cubes had been taken away by the government until the very end. And Joe is the one who tell the Alien to "GO" and that he understands and that bad things happen and its OK. This could be seen as the alien's motivation to leave. (my brother mentioned a parallel to 'Stand By Me' underdog kids, which is also true.)
9. Slight Spielbergian cinematography connections - 2:
a. The way both the gas station attendant and the airfare bus driver are "pulled away" feet first screaming by the Alien is very similar to the first death in Jurassic Park, where the gatekeeper is "pulled away" feet first screaming by the Velociraptor.
b. The side tracking dolly shots of the kids running through neighborhood "up and over" hills, fences, etc is very similar to side tracking dolly shots in ET of kids riding their bikes through neighborhood "up and over" hills, fences, etc trying to get ET to the forrest.
10. And here are a random sampling of other various connections I saw to Spielbergian cinema - the use of smoke and light, the conversational cadence of the kids interrupting each other & using cuss words poorly, loss of a parent, military being overly "big brother" in hiding alien, tracking and dolly shots, overhead shot of bus. I could go on and on.
Without question Super 8 has a multitude of connections and parallels to Steven Spielberg films but it is also good to keep in mind that good story elements are good story elements no matter when, where or who they are used by. Many times the good ones pop up over and over again, precisely for that reason, because they work. Overlap to previous archetypes or story mythologies is inevitable because the ones we like are the ones we like, whether they are set in space or in the old west. Good storytellers are drawn to these same archetypal stories, they just flavor them differently each generation. In summation, all of these parallels could simply be a MASTER STUDENT (Abrams) following his MASTER TEACHER (Spielberg) with such skill that it comes off as an omage, which it very well may be and does not keep it from being a truly original work.
BONUS!
#. Not a Spielberg omage but the name of the gas station KELVIN is the 2nd reference J.J. Abrams has made to his grandfather in a feature film, the 1st being the name of one of the spaceships in Star Trek (the "U.S.S. Kelvin") And of course all LOST fans know Kelvin is the name of the guy that was in the Swan Hatch before Desmond.
#. Also not a Spielberg parallel, but the kids zombie file "The Case" pays omega to George A. Romero, the godfather of zombie films by naming the chemical plant 'Romero Chemicals'. Loved that. - Odin BgoodGreat, classic movie!Great movie!
- NanciejeanneMade me love going to the movies again!The film is about basically about an alien (and military knowledge of it) and the small-town heroes who want to solve the mystery and save the town (and ultimately the alien, too.) Sort of a mixture of Gremlins, ET, Jurassic Park (lots of Spielberg-style in this movie), the Goonies, Predator, with a little zombie stuff and Dazed and Confused thrown in. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but it is very tension driven, not gory (which worked well for the hard-to-please tweens in my house...not kiddies, but not ready for R-ratings.)
I would have liked to have seen more of the character development between the boys (even if the action sequences were a little shorter) but that is just my preference and that doesn't fit with the "summer blockbuster" type of genre. Still, it seemed to ride the buddy movie/action movie line very very well. I WANTED the protagonists to win...which doesn't always happen for me in some movies. There were also a few little moments of that-doesn't-make-any-sense and corny stuff, but the movie was so enjoyable, you just let the few go.
Overall, it was quite good. I remember walking out and thinking "I wanna see that AGAIN!" which isn't a frequent response I have to most movies. I often judge movies by the amount of popcorn I have left...if it is gone, it means I was kind of bored/not engaged, but I had half a bag left after this one!! Be sure to stay during the credits to see the Super 8 version of "The Case."
I hope people are reading these reviews before the DVD is released, because this one really should be seen on the big screen. It has a nostalgic feel and being in the theater (or better...the Drive-in!) really makes the experience more whole. A dark room at home with lots of popcorn will likely work well, too. I WILL find out because I have to own this!