Action packed and dramatically fulfilling, Super 8 is J.J. Abrams love letter to the adventure found in youth and tribute to the early films of Steven Spielberg.

Every king has a successor, and in the lineage of sci-fi action adventure movie making, it is clear to J.J Abrams with eventually wear the crown slowly slipping from the head of Mr. Spielberg.

It would be deserving. As TV producer and filmmaker, Abrams has already created an industry unto himself, and Super 8 is set to state his case further, with is mix of domestic drama and action spectacle a prefect concoction for blockbuster season.

Set in the late 1970s, the film focuses on young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), who along with his police deputy father (Kyle Chandler) is reeling from the sudden death of his mom.

Although a small town American kid, Joe is not into the small town American pastimes of baseball or football. He’d rather play with monster make up and construct models with his close group of friends, led by inspiring filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths) whose film project takes up their spare time and introduces Joe to young wild child Alice (Elle Fanning).   

With super 8 camera in tow, the group head to the train station for a night shoot full of “production value”. What follows is the money shot featured so heavily in the promo ads, as a cargo train derails and sends carriages into the air, dropping like bombs on our young heroes as they scramble for safety.

Out of the wreckage escapes something strange and powerful. Soon it rampages through their little town, causing panic and drawing the military whose intentions are suspect. Abrams wisely evokes Jaws and refuses to reveal his creature too early, leaving the fierce brutality and strength of his monster to speak for itself.

Yet this is not a monster movie. Rather it is a “human” movie, which happens to have a monster in it. Relationship’s is its forte. There is that between Joe and his dad, both unable to communicate without his mum as a buffer. There is the young love between Joe and Alice, which is sweet and convincing. Then there is that between Joe and his friends, the outsider kids who each bring their own eccentricities to the mix.

Don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a kid’s film. It’s much too violent and mature to be described in that way. What Super 8 represents is a time when films were full of spirit, adventure and classy novelty, that was only worth seeing in the cinema, with family and friends for company.

A lot of cinema purists look down upon the golden age of the summer blockbuster (1975-1985). But what many forget is that was a time when the spectacle of the movies was at its most ripe, with the films of Steven Spielberg a special treat (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial).

There is no doubt that Abrams was a keen observer. Super 8 proves that, with every beat and moment born from the influence of his cinematic hero, yet made fresh through Abrams own visual gifts and solid story telling chops.

Super 8 is not ground breaking cinema. Its influences are worn to loudly to be labelled that. But Super 8 is fun, thrilling and moving movie making, from a filmmaker who delights in entertaining his audience, just as Spielberg once entertained him.