Two grand doors leading to a blinding white light, to a form of escape. Heaven or what? No, the BFI IMAX.
The IMAX is located in the centre of the Southbank, the only way to enter the futuristic pod is to take a walk on the adventurous side and travel underground. Before even setting foot in the IMAX, the audience is excited and tense by the unique form of entrance. It’s almost as if you are becoming part of your own film.
Once inside, the service is satisfactory as the process of purchasing the tickets was slow even though it was not a busy time – Friday, early afternoon. However, this is no reason to dismiss the experience because the facilities are well maintained and kept to a high standard bumping up the venues standards.
The prices were quite expensive, but worth every penny to experience a one of a kind film on Britain’s biggest screen – the height of five double-decker buses – in breath-taking clarity. The snacks are also for those who travel prepared and have learned to never climb a mountain without a credit card.
Despicable Me is the latest computer animated 3D comedy from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment; it was originally released earlier this year on July 9th 2010 in the USA. The film stars many known actors in some more than unusual situations such as the loveable villain Steve Carell and the vocal talents of some comedic heroes, such as Jason Segel and Russell Brand. A great addition and unexpected meany is the well-spoken Julie Andrews. It is the first of its kind as a CGI feature produced by Universal in association with its Illumination Entertainment division.
The story follows a supervillain named Gru (Carell) – where he’s from, no-one really knows – whose plan for a grand scheme includes using three orphan girls as his pawns.
Gru’s position as the #1 villain has been taken over by newbie, Vector (Segel) and so to maintain his title, Gru will commit the greatest crime of the century. He will steal the Moon. However, in order to do this he must first obtain a shrink-ray, owned by Vector himself who keeps it in his home under absurd shark-and-moat supervision. No matter how hard he tries to break in to the villain’s lair he just can’t. Right when Gru is about to give up hope, along come three orphaned cookie-selling girls who are permitted entry into Vector’s house with ease. This puts Gru’s brain to work; he will use the girls to sneak in mini shrink-ray-stealing robots. He will do this with the help of Dr. Nefario (Brand), his in-house crazed scientist who will comply with whatever kooky invention he needs. Only Gru finds that along the way the girls’ innocent love profoundly changes his ways and this deeply perturbs Nefario and he sets out to keep Gru in check over what his true intentions are. So not only is he fighting the fact that his ice heart is melting but he is also fighting his judgemental mother (Andrews) who never thought much of his ambitions and achievements. Will Gru be able to juggle children and evil? Can he go from superbad to superdad?
Its tough being #2…not a problem for Despicable Me. The movie has been a huge success opening at number one in the US box office pulling in $56.3 million, this success made it the third biggest opening grossing for an animated film, just behind the same company’s predecessor, Shrek Forever After. On August 5th, the film crossed the $200 million mark and became the first Universal production to reach this milestone since The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. The movie had a budget of $69 million but made an incredible gross revenue of $417,323,775.
The key to this major success was the use of a villain we will all love to…love. In an amazing turn of events the main character is a villain, we find ourselves rooting for his scheming plot and his victory. The endearing supervillain captivates the audience from the moment we set our eyes on him with his suave, cool mannerisms and we are thrown into a treacherous mind-set thinking of ways to help Gru fulfil his plan.
Being that this film was originally intended for 3D viewing it has amazing graphics and every detail has been designed to the point where we can see every freckle on Gru’s face. The attention to detail of every one of the minions is superb: individual and quirky, with a hint of children’s innocence. Although completely computer animated, nothing on the big screen oozes as unattainable – besides the stealing of the Moon. However, the graphics have unfortunately been slightly overrated as although the polarised 3D gives a better effect to the film than any other form of 3D, a criticism I would give the makers would be that making the film more realistic and vibrant was genius, there is not much that really jumps out at you to enhance the viewing experience and the film would be just as great in 2D as it is in 3D. A sure-fire let down but not to worry, this doesn’t take away from the film and it’s ability to tug on your heartstrings.
The film has many emotional scenes; the film has its fair share of cheers, tears and laughs. A favourite scene of mine was when Gru’s adopted daughters are cheated at the theme park on a game stall and are not given their prize because the aim of the game was to knock over the spaceship, which seems to be welded down. So the crafty villain uses his blast gun to completely blow up the stall and finally knock over the spaceship; with his conquest done he bellows out “KNOCKED OOOOOVER!” Cue laughs plus more crazy antics.
Now for the tears. When Nefario threatens to make Gru stay on track and remember that the girls are just their tools, he decides the best way to do this is to take away his distractions. Prepare your eyes for the welling-up you will encounter when you see Gru face a decision he and the audience never thought would happen. Will he lose the girls for good? Will he decide he’s meant to give them back to the orphanage or will he fight for them? Has Gru really changed? Just a few of the question this sentimental scene will provoke in the audience’s minds.
There are times we will love and hate more than one character as they each change their ways as the time passes and they realise what is to be done about their lives.
The ending is a cause for cheers and celebration, full of dancing, music and hilarity as we see Gru’s family come together in an eruption of colour and energy. We see his minions - still arguing - act as brothers to the girls and Gru achieve something he has been searching for all his life but never thought he would ever get in his wildest dreams.
Yes, the trailers do tease us that the animation will be the story behind a Bond-type supervillain’s battle to stay on top but are pleasantly surprised by the dedication to fatherhood. Overall the combination of the two companies has created a fantastic feel-good family film for people of all ages to enjoy and learn the true value of family. It’s worth more than even the Moon.
Despicable Me – sure to leave you with a grin on your face and a whole new outlook on villains.
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