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Five Things We (Finally!) Know About Super 8

So, we ask one last time, what is Super 8--besides the reason there's no Star Trek 2 this summer?
/ Source: E!online

So, we ask one last time, what is Super 8--besides the reason there's no Star Trek 2 this summer?

Let's review the case file on the under-wraps J.J. Abrams E.T. flick, which unwraps itself at theaters on Friday:

RELATED: Super 8 sneak peeks!

1. It's Not Cloverfield: Early speculation had it that Super 8, with its 1970s kids, film reels and mysterious space alien, was a prequel to Abrams' 2008 movie, with its 21st century grown-ups, camcorders and mystery monster. An early Abrams denial said Super 8 had " nothing whatsoever to do with Cloverfield." Early bird reviews confirm as much, although critics can't help but reference the prior film (or detect its spirit).

2. It's Not Based on a True Story...So Far As We Know: Per the trailer, the government closed a section of Area 51 in 1979 and transported its top-secret contents across the country by rail. (A subsequent train smash-up in Ohio is what sets Super 8 in motion.) In real life, the government didn't close a section of Area 51 in 1979 because the government doesn't acknowledge that there is such a thing as Area 51 (only that it has an Air Force base about 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas).

3. It's About Abrams, Sort Of: Guess how old the film-geek kids are in Super 8? About 13. Guess how old the movie's writer-director was in 1979? About 13. (Abrams, however, grew up in New York City, not Ohio. Also, he never had an adolescent run-in with a space alien...so far as we know.)

4. It's About Steven Spielberg, Definitely: Until the jacked-up trailer that ran during Sunday's MTV Movie Awards, Super 8 has been sold as the Spielberg movie that Spielberg might've made during his Jaws-Close Encounters-E.T. wonder years. The bikes! The kids! The scene where Kyle Chandler removes his eyeglasses in an act of awe! (We made that last one up--we think. Spielberg, a longtime lover of eyeglass-removal shots, is a producer on Super 8.)

5. It's Not to Be Walked Out On: The end credits feature value-added fun. And while we're not talking a hard-core spoiler, if you don't want to know the exact nature of the value-added fun, then don't read this review. Or this one.

(Originally published June 7, 2011, at 4:00 a.m. PT)

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