7. Super 8
With Star Trek, J.J. Abrams was able to pay tribute to a franchise he loved while simultaneously reinventing it for a modern audience (who didn’t need to speak Klingon to fully enjoy it). It makes sense then that his next move would be an homage to Steven Spielberg, and the director succeeded perfectly in recreating and recapturing the same sort of magic that E.T. did back in 1982.
Clearly serving as a way of also channelling his own childhood (to an extent), Super 8 focuses on a group of young amateur filmmakers who witness a train crash and later discover that an alien has taken refuge in their small suburban town. The young cast are terrific and Abrams perfectly explores their relationships, lives and the coming of age tale here easily overtakes the sci-fi elements as the true heart of the movie.
