Sometimes when you’re behind on a deadline, you resort to desperate measures. Like you haven’t watched enough movies at the theater this year, so you go catch Megamind 3D, a movie you weren’t that excited about, at the UA Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, a theater that you have repeatedly called the worst movie theater in New York City.
And sometimes, those desperate measures pay off big time. I loved Megamind 3D. It exceeded my expectations in every way. I think it is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen this year and is definitely the best superhero movie not named Iron Man 2 of the year.
Also, the UA Court St proved to be a great place to see a movie. Yeah, I never thought I’d say that either. I think you just have to follow certain rules if you want to see a movie there, namely:
- Avoid the ticket window. There is consistently a long line that stretches sometimes to the Barnes & Noble next door, but there’s never a line at the ticket vending machines indoors. Do that people who frequent this theater not have credit cards? Do they fear technology? Are they wary of an inevitable robot uprising? I have no idea.
- Never go to the UA Court St on the opening weekend of the movie you want to see.
- Or the opening weekend of any movie for that matter. If your movie has been out for awhile, but a new movie is opening up that same weekend, skip this theater.
- You know what, just avoid the place anytime Friday through Sunday.
- The earlier you go on a weekday, the better. I saw Megamind 3D at 4:45 on a Wednesday afternoon and there were only 6 of us in the theater, and more importantly, no one was psycho.
You should take these rules as seriously as you would rules about feeding mogwai. Heed them and you can avoid the nightmare situations I’ve experienced at the UA Court St, like the time I sat next to a woman who was giving a play by play of Sea Biscuit’s race on her cell phone.
If you are a comic book fan, you need to to see Megamind 3D. Besides taking the familiar Superman vs. Lex Luthor/Brainiac scenario and turning it on its head, Megamind 3D has plenty of injokes for the comic book enthusiast. The best being Megamind’s disguise as Space Dad when he’s training Tighten. It’s straight up Brando from Superman: The Movie. Megamind even talks in a Godfather voice to drive it home.
Space Dad (and Space Step-Mom).
And how funny is the name Tighten? “It’s the only name I could trademark,” says Megamind. Was it supposed to be Titan and Jonah Hill’s character was just too dumb? Or was it Tighten the whole time?
David Cross is hilarious as Minion. I don’t know which minion was better, David Cross’s alien fish in a robot body Minion from Megamind or the minions from Despicable Me. But without a doubt, 2010 is the year of the minion.
I kind of want this.
And this.
Megamind shares a lot in common with J!m, that main character in Go Mutants!, Larry Doyle’s second novel. Both have over-sized blue craniums. Both were judged and ridiculed for their appearance by their small-minded peers growing up. This led to teen rebellion for J!m and the desire for domination over Metro City for Megamind, which when you think about it is the supervillain equivalent of teenage rebellion.
I love this poster.
I can’t be the only one who thought that Tina Fey’s character, the Lois Lane-alike Roxanne Ritchi, looked a lot like Alexis Bledel, but with short hair. If the animators are going to make Roxanne look like Alexis Bledel, why not just cast Alexis Bledel instead of Tina Fey? It was a little weird to hear Tina Fey’s voice come out of Alexis Bledel’s mouth.
I will not be surprised when it is revealed that the lead animator of Megamind has a crush on Alexis Bledel.
Speaking of celebrities voicing animated characters, I feel like it doesn’t always work. Usually when it doesn’t work for me is when it’s a celebrity with a very distinctive voice, like Tina Fey or Jonah Hill, playing a character that they don’t look like in real life. Because they’re both so famous, I keep expecting to see their faces attached to their voices. But I didn’t have this problem with David Cross and Will Ferrell in Megamind. Thinking about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because their two characters, a talking alien fish and a blue alien with a over-large cranium, were far enough away from being human that I didn’t feel the need for their voices and their faces to match up.
Megamind 3D gets a definite “see it in the theater” rating. If you enjoyed Despicable Me earlier this year, you’ll no doubt like Megamind 3D as well.
