Ranking Bad Robot Movies From Worst To Best

8. Super 8 (2011)

J.J. Abrams' love letter to the films of Steven Spielberg isn't perfect, but as an exercise in nostalgia - and as a modern sci-fi thriller - it more than delivers on its premise. Abrams took a purposely vague approach to marketing the film, which made a somewhat tricky sell (at least by modern standards) massively hyped: set at the end of the '70s, the plot hones in on a group of Stand By Me-like kids, who - whilst shooting a home movie - become entangled with a mysterious alien entity after an explosive train crash. Heartfelt and exciting, there's a clear difference between the first half of Super 8 and the second: whilst the first is better paced with a focus on characterisation, the last hour is more conventionally action-orientated. As such, it's easy to understand why some people had a problem with the shift; it occasionally feels like there are two different films on offer. In addition, at time the "Spielberg tribute" approach kills some of the originality. Still, Abrams clearly loves the movies that he's paying homage to here, and it comes through in every frame. It is an ode to imagination... and to the filmmakers in all of us.