MEGAMIND! :D Also a slightly serious post.
I wasn't in the best of forms today. I didn't get much sleep the night before, thanks to my sister having to leave. I'd also been sick on new years eve and the thing is I'd been kind of hoping maybe someone would want to hang out then, people who I haven't seen for months or even a year or even LONGER for those odd few. One of these people even well, stopped me from 'ending it all' in an indirect way, and yet we somehow seemed to be drifting apart. On top of this I was travelling to the city just to research for a huge assignment and heard a rumour regarding the upcoming Monsters Inc sequel in a prequel idea, the more detailed premise, which doesn't exactly enthuse me even if it doesn't want me to sink my knees into the mud and yell in deep angst either. I don't really think it's true (this rumour), but I'm a bit disappointed if it is, even though it could be much worse. While I got a fair bit done in terms of collecting background knowledge, I wasn't feeling my best in general, so after a nap in my flat I decided to walk to the movie house and get a film times leaflet just because.
Megamind, a movie I'd been wanting to see for a few weeks was showing in two minutes and not digging the idea of going to the library too soon I went to see it then and there.
All I can say is: wow, it REALLY cheered me up and snapped me out of my funk. It also helped me realise why I love some of these films. To get a bit serious, there was a period during my pre and early teens when I seriously considered ending it all, I won't go into details why here but suffice to say a movie helped cheer me up as well as general fantasy. This came in the form of the movie Ice Age at first for me. While I'm not sure I could say movies saved my life precisely, they certainly helped me hang on until said friend, someone I actulally before hand had not got on with well helped me get to a more stable place just by being there. Ice Age (the first one) I think I can attribute this directly to, because while for the most part I'd just been afraid to do it, but there were moments closer than others and I seriously was starting details into some wacked out plan to make it look accidental or actually more or less be an 'accident on purpose'. Ice Age however did cheer me a little, and for a while stories really helped me to just hang on in there- I wasn't happy in what I precieved to be reality before then.
While I haven't for instance seriously considered the idea of suicide ('accidental' or otherwise) since I was 15, maybe 16, at points stories have helped me especially when while I was getting better, I still had bad moments as we're probably all bound to have. I've learned a lot from them (stories) in some ways, whether they have good or bad endings or in general, about myself and maybe even other people as well as my own experiences, and while I don't perhaps rely on them as much I think they will be a part of my life always in some way.
Megamind kind of helped me to remember this. While it didn't snap me out of some near-suicidal funk like Ice Age did. (Namely because I don't have them really anymore even if I have had low moments). It cheered me up from some other problems I had and made me feel brighter. While I may sound like a stupid sap, Megamind is remarkably fun but also wonderful. I'm very lucky in some ways, even if things aren't always perfect, and even though the fear of failure is indeed something I struggle with and I certainly did in my undergraduate (where I wondered what the point of trying was since my marks weren't spectacular even though I was passing), and even when I'm doing a bit better now in my Masters I do have some paranoia regarding that. Megamind as a movie for me however pretty much said we shouldn't give up because we're afraid of failing.
We shouldn't do good things either necessarily to get what we want of course, but also having someone who believes in us is what we need. Additional things are that people can change (but I kind of already think that).
This is less of a review and more of a gushing about random things and how I attribute some thanks to fiction and animated films, and how Megamind helped me remember some of that.
But it's a fantastic film, and ultimately something I'll be definitly buying on DVD. It's a movie which feels like dreamworks but proves this is not a bad thing and ultimately works remarkably well. I'm possibly going against the grain also by saying that (while I adored HTTYD too), I actually loved it more than How to Train Your Dragon!
A wonderful film I heartily recommend, and it certainly helped me when I was feeling a bit down.
And to top it all off, several of my friends contacted me as I was sitting in the movie through facebook, the said friend who 'saved' me wanting to meet up and I got a bit more work done in an even better mood. :)
So today was a good day, and I just thought I'd share it. Thanks in part to Megamind, but also of course the friends who contacted me!