Movie Review: Despicable Me in 3D

I will sum up my opinion with this: well crafted family entertainment; Rotten Tomatoes gave it 79%. I see no need for spoiler alerts but if you're interested, I have provided some links below so you can read over a summary of the plot. Suffice it to say that "family entertainment" means that the producers have targeted both adults and children. If I would have any criticism per se, it was that both my wife and I took about a half an hour to "get into it" however that may be more of a reflection on us on an off night than the film.

For the trivia aficionados, I will point out that Steve Carell voiced the main character. I find this notable because Mr. Carell has pretty much jumped into the spotlight after having spent years doing minor things. I loved him as a "correspondent" for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and he certainly matched Jim Carrey's nuttiness in the film Bruce Almighty. All of a sudden, he seems to be just about everywhere: the TV comedy series The Office, the films Get Smart, Date Night and Dinner for Schmucks. This man has certainly been having a blossoming career as of late.

The Question of 3D

My wife and I discussed at length whether 3D added something to the film experience or whether it was merely a gimmick. She felt it was a gimmick which had its uses but were limited to certain situations. In this film, she felt it didn't really add anything particular and only found the very last bit, kind of an outtake added to the end credits really demonstrated the 3D effect.

I can't say one way or another but I do wonder if watching 3D could somehow be lumped in with HD and digital sound. What I mean is that when HD was first introduced, I didn't think much of it; I was concentrating on the content and didn't pay much attention to the quality of the image. However, after flipping back and forth between shows in regular display and HD, I could clearly see the difference in quality. However, I found this to be sort of subtle: I had to look at the 2 side by side to truly appreciate how HD was better.

The same for sound: when I'm concentrating on the content, I may not be paying much attention to the delivery of said content.

Will 3D turn out to be the same? Right now, it may look like a gimmick but after we see it over and over again, will we start to realize that yes, it does change the presentation of the film? Oddly enough, during the entire film of Despicable Me, I can't say that I was sitting there consciously thinking about the 3D aspect of the movie. I was just watching the movie and appreciating the content. If, however, I had been able to flip back and forth between 3D and 2D, would I have been able to better assess the quality of the 3D experience and would have declared 3D preferably to 2D? I don't know but I guess time will tell and the market - all of us collectively - will determine if 3D is going to change the landscape like HD has changed TV.

See my review of Toy Story in 3D for a further discussion of the question of 3D.


References

Rotten Tomatoes: Despicable Me: 79%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1214097-despicable_me/

Wikipedia: Despicable Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despicable_Me

My review of Toy Story in 3D
http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/2010/07/movie-review-toy-story-3-in-3d.html

2010-08-08