I thought it started well and went down hill steadly throughout. The ending was very poor and reminded me of an equally badly finished movie - Stephen Kings It.
I admire what JJ Abrams tries to do as a director. He idolises Speilberg and the notion of making movies special again. Unfortunately, for me he has yet to really pull it off. It's obvious he has tried to emulate the films that you mention (not a bad idea at all). But there are just too many shortfalls that go with it.
my 2 main problems were:
1) Main villain - Totally weak, killed off way too soon. Explain to me how a MAJOR not a colonel, not a general but a MAJOR is solely responsible for this operation. Thats ridiculous.
2) Ramming the social aspect down our throats. Why can't a sci-fi film be just that? Why do we have to have something mirroring real life, regarding the torture of hostages etc? Movies should be escapism not dressed up propaganda. Maybe the alien was a bad egg, maybe he deserved the torture. Don't spoon feed us this malpractice politically correct garbage.
so in conclusion - Super 8 =
not so super 5/10 * It has all the ingredients, but it tries way too hard.