I know, I know, I just said that about Inception last summer, but um, I was right. Can you think of another film coming out in the next few months that contends for this year’s title? (I am not a Harry Potter-phile, so that doesn’t count in my mind.)

Let’s try to keep it simple: Writer-director J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 isn’t perfect, but it does exactly what you need a blockbuster to do–entertain, dazzle, tell a goddamn story–without the obvious plot points or bloatedness of most other summer fare. The acting is all solid, especially the kids at the center of the story, led by wide-eyed newcomer Joel Courtney and the always-frighteningly talented Elle Fanning. It’s sci-fi but only as much as E.T. is sci-fi (and Steven Spielberg’s producer credit speaks to his obvious influence on Abrams’ work here). It’s an extraterrestrial mystery—in the summer of 1979, a train crash in small-town Ohio leads to the escape of something, which a group of kids accidentally capture footage of in the midst of making an amateur zombie movie—that serves a jumping-off point to explore the nostalgia of relationships amongst children and parents, boys and girls. The film’s touching moments only occasionally verge into the sappy, but one would expect as much after seeing the final season of LOST.

Super 8 has a few pulse-pounding, awesome moments in the train crash scene. Even after seeing snippets of it repeatedly in the trailer and ads, that extended sequence still rates as a breathtaker, which is a cinematic rarity. Abrams is smart enough to infuse action with heart, playful pop culture jokes with plotlines, and he coyly teases the audience with his monster, revealing bit by bit, like he did in Cloverfield (or like Spielberg did in Jaws). And while I was never totally transported, which is to say I never forgot I was watching a movie, I nodded to myself in appreciation of how efficiently the plot moved.

Super 8 is shot well, structured well, edited well—all in all, it’s a seemingly effortless movie that does its job. It entertains and puts you back outside in under two hours (112 minutes’ running time). And that is perhaps the biggest gift to summer audiences of all.

Super 8 is showing now at the Meridian, Thornton Place, the Metro, Pacific Science Center, Majestic Bay, Lincoln Square, and Southcenter.