A few days ago several fanboy bloggers were shown JJ Abrams‘ Super 8 (Paramount, 6.10) and allowed to tweet their reactions. With this many cats out of the bag I guess I can say I’ve seen it too. An “almost there” version, I should add. I signed a non-disclosure form but surely at this stage I can say two brief things: (a) tonally it’s definitely a ’70s Spielberg trip through and through (although that was obvious in the first teaser), and (b) Elle Fanning, who turned 13 last month, is a real movie star.

Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney in JJ Abrams’ Super 8.

There’s a moment when Fanning, who was good but mostly passive and nonverbal in Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere, begins performing some dialogue for a super 8 zombie movie that her friends (one of whom is played by newcomer Joel Courtney, who’s also quite good) are shooting. And something just clicks when she lets go with that special vibe or deep-well charisma or whatever it is that some actors just have. The instant she begins saying the lines…pocket drop. A feeling of being anchored and practiced and on a certain level older than her years, and the camera knowing this. I said to myself, “Wow, she’s getting there fast.”