Super 8 (2011)

So the film from Steven Spielberg and J. J. Abrams is finally here and i went to see it at the cinema as all Steven Spielberg films should be seen there as I think that he is the quintessential film maker. I knew very little of this film going in and have to say that the hype worried me, how can a film from the master of subterfuge J. J. Abrams be that good when all of the advertising is so subtle.

Now I feel I gave this film a fair going but did make a throw away comment just before the film started that at the end I thought I just about nailed it with that one comment. The comment I made was "JJ is remaking E.T. with Mr Spielberg, lucky him." now it is not really a remake of E.T. but thinking about this film it is really a cross of  E.T. and Cloverfield and I cannot get this out of my head. I will say that the start of the film pulled me in there were enough questions going on that I was like oooh I wonder what that means and I wonder how it will all fit together. I have to say that the Train wreck was epic and immense and looked cool, but hey the car was untouched which was convenient.

I feel that this film is over hyped from the outset and the story is a mash up of 2 works from these directors and I feel cheated for some reason. I have no idea what I wanted but I don't think it was this. For that reason I am going to say 2 stars and the only reason it is not 1 star is the performances and effects are worth more than 1 star/ Ultimately I might be wrong about this and I will see it again on DVD but at the moment this is a failure for me.

Ghost Ship (2002)

I love Ghost Ship from the opening scene which even people that hate the film agree is pretty awesome, the wire scene if you have seen the film, it is actually worth watching for that scene and you can turn off afterwards, however this falls squarely in to my guilty pleasures category and I have watched it many times and will watch it again. You have a salvage crew with Gabriel Byrne, Julianne Marguiles, Ron Eldrad, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades and Karl Urban. Go chasing after a cruise liner that is shown to them by Desmond Harrington a strange young man they meet in the port.

When on the ship strange happenings and Julianne Marguiles seeing a young Emily Browning playing Katie and it kicks off from there, I think that it is a good old fashioned haunted ship story that has an interesting idea and delivers it well, the characters while not detailed are likeable and believable and I am happy to listen to counter arguments.

I would recommend this but I understand why some people would not appreciate it and I am happy to allow them to lose out on the joy and fun that i think this film brings. I am going to say 4 stars as I accept it has it's flaws, even though some of those flaws make it so enjoyable to me.