Men In Black 3 Viewing at the VIP Theatre at the Mall of America

My husband and I recently took a trip to the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota at the end of May. There is so much to see and do in this 520 store mall. Being the movie buffs that we are we couldn’t pass up the chance to try out the MOA’s VIP theatre. They have 14 screens but one is designated as VIP - 160 seat theater devoted to adults ages 21 and up, which is made to suit us perfectly. For $2 extra you gain admittance into this theater and have a waitress who brings you wine, beer, popcorn/snacks as you request it throughout the movie. You can’t beat that plus we went during happy hour!! Needless to say we kept our drinks full through the entire showing. The seats are plush and large with ample leg room, which is a vast improvement over any theater I’ve been to with cramped seating and people tripping over each other to get to their seats. There are small tables in front of your seats to hold your snacks and drinks.

We enjoyed watching Men In Black 3 as we were treated to this VIP treatment and practically had the theater to ourselves with just a few other couples. I could get used to this type of theater treatment, and I will certainly be contacting my local theater to suggest a similar setup for ages 21 and up. It certainly would entice us to have a few more movie date nights out, if we were assured that there wouldn’t be kids and teens talking through the entire movie. 

We built our own home theater (shown above); so it takes a lot to lure us out of our quiet, cozy, theater, especially when ticket prices are close to $10 and rising. There just isn’t any advantage to going out rather than staying in. The only drawback is that we have to wait several months for movies to release on DVD, and a few times a year that is enough to draw us out for special features like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Avengers, etc. Most of the time it really pays off to wait and screen the films in our own home. It’s quiet with no kids or teens giggling or talking through the film. We can pause the film if we need a restroom break or want to grab a snack downstairs. We have a fridge in the theater with cold water and beer; so we always have drinks on hand. There is no wait, unlike at the movies where you waste time driving to the theater, buying the tickets, finding seats and waiting through those god awful trivia questions and theater ads. The movies never even start on time anymore, and there are usually 5 previews to watch until the feature starts. You could easily waste an hour to an hour and a half with all these delays and inconveniences. Plus, you have to shell out major bucks for tickets and any refreshments if you are suckered in to paying for the outrageously overpriced drinks and candy items at the concession stand, which we refuse to do. Plus, did I mention how much more comfortable our reclining theater seats are compared to the crummy, creaking public theater seats that probably have headlice crawling all over them. No thanks! I’d rather watch from the comfort of my own theater and get a front row seat to my 100 inch screen and surround sound any day!

I digress - Back to the MOA VIP theater. If you have to go out to see a movie, this is the way to do it. They have a Star Bar (shown above) with happy hour specials before and after movies, and the VIP section has it’s own bar and concession stand with no lines, and if you want to order during the movie you just raise your hand and you are promptly waited on without leaving your seat. They are extremely accommodating and are invested in creating an experience that you want to repeat over and over again. It worked like clockwork when we attended, but that was with a pretty empty theater. I believe there may have only been 6-8 people there including myself and my husband; so I wonder how this service would work with a full house. It might be more difficult for the servers to wait on 160 people at once. And I imagine it would get pretty distracting with the wait staff walking back and forth with drinks and collecting payment for each item.

We tried out the new D-Box seats right outside the theater lobby. D-Box is the new theater experience with specialized seating programmed for each movie in order to create a full body theater experience. The seats move with the action, shake during explosions and have surround sound speakers attached to the individual seats. They were previewing the new Snow White and the Huntsman in the D Box seats, and you could hear the arrows whizzing by your head as they flew through the air. The seats tilt up and around to mimic the action in the movie scenes, which was reminiscent of the 4D theaters at Disney and Universal. At the Mall of America this experience costs an extra $8 on top of the normal ticket price so that is quite steep, especially if you are also adding in a 3D charge. Within one of the MOA 200 seat 3-D theatres there is a section of 30 reserved D-Box seats (shown above) with the full range motion available that brings the movie to life for audience members. It was cool to test them out; however, we weren't feeling in the mood to spend that much on a single movie. We were lucky enough to score free VIP movie tickets; so we didn’t even pay the $24 normal ticket prices which made this VIP experience even more enjoyable! We were even treated to a free drink at Crave (upscale MOA restaurant) with our VIP wrist bands; so we were happy with the overall experience. Plus our feet needed the 2 hour rest during the movie from all the walking we did during our 2 day mall experience. If you are interested in seeing what D-Box is all about, I included a short video at the end of this blog to show what you can expect from the D-Box experience.

As far as the review of Men In Black 3, I will say that I wasn’t impressed. I loved the first 2 installments of MIB as Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have great chemistry. I remember watching the first Men in Black in 1997 and thinking how funny and fresh this concept was. I didn’t think there was a need for a third one, but Hollywood will beat any franchise to death, if they think they can squeeze another nickel out of it without having to spend time creating a new idea. IMDB has already announced Hancock 2, Bad Boys 3 and I-Robot 2. Apparently Will Smith won't do a movie these days unless it's an undeserved sequel. I can't imagine any of those films improving on the original. 

The smartest idea they had was to change things up to where they introduced a new character by way of Tommy Lee Jones’ younger self, which Will Smith visits in the past. Josh Brolin was the best aspect of this installment. His impression of Jones was spot on and hysterical. He got the most laughs by far. Will Smith seemed lazy and just worn out in this film. You can tell how much he has aged between MIB 2 and MIB 3. He usually has tons of energy and quick whips to throw back at his co-stars, but it felt like Brolin carried the weight of this entire film. Jones was in such a small part of the film and his absence was really noticeable. 

The addition of Emma Thompson as Agent O wasn’t enough to make up for Zed’s absence either. It seems as if this franchise has lost it’s sizzle. There were some very funny scenes in this film, but they seemed few and far between. I don't imagine I would watch this one again. The supporting cast of Alice Eve as a young Agent O and Jemaine Clement as Boris the Animal brought new energy to the film, but even that fell flat after awhile. 

2.5 stars - Brolin was a hit but everything else was forgettable; Doesn’t match the first 2 installments

More information about the VIP Theatres in the Mall of America 

Link to the MOA VIP Theatre

http://www.theatresmoa.com/vip/

Happy Hour Menu at Mall of America Theaters

Daily Happy Hour 4-6 and 9-11 $3 Domestic Beer (Tap and Bottle) and $4 House Wines

I can recommend the Manyana Garnacha – very flavorful and sweet

http://www.theatresmoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2012HappyHour.pdf

Video of D-Box Debut at MOA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6q1rOSgYKM