Super 8 was one of those films I saw the trailor for and thought, yeah that might be worth a watch. I didn’t go to see it at the cinema but borrowed the dvd from a friend as soon as I could.

The trailer implied the film was a cutesy kids action film with a little bit of a serious alien undertone and for the first 30 minutes that’s exactly what it was. The kids making their own film were so stereotypical it was brilliant and, although a little like watching an old kids film, it was retro in all the right ways.

For kids, the acting was superb and the whole cast of miniature adults had me won over pretty quickly and they never let me down the whole way through the film.

The let down came when the film got a lot more serious than the trailer implied it would. The alien’s introduction scene was actually really rather violent and gory for what appeared to be a more childlike film. The alien was the kind of alien you would expect in an alien horror film and not a Stephen Spielberg kids film and the way the film was put together was a lot more jumpy than I’d have liked. I don’t mind a film that makes me jump one or twice but I think I jumped at four separate points in more of a horror film way.

I loved the cast and routed for them the whole way but when the film had finished I felt a little like I’d been miss-sold it. It was far darker than I was expecting and I really don’t think I’ll be buying it, which is a shame because I was hoping for another ET moment.