You know how directors set a scene. They might show a group of characters in period clothing. They might have someone turn on the radio and listen to the song of the summer. They might have a television humming in the background, with an anchor detailing the world crisis that will tell you the exact year in which the movie takes place. J.J. Abrams does all of those things in the first 10 minutes of “Super 8.” And just in case that wasn’t enough, he uses another popular filmmaker’s trick — showing the dated gravestone of someone just-deceased — to make sure you know his film is set in 1979.

We’re meant to chuckle at the amateur quality of the film festival entry the young protagonists are making with the old-school camera of this movie’s title. But “Super 8,” despite its big-budget special effects, isn’t always that much more polished.