Goodness, but I do love a shared universe. I grew up reading Marvel comics and some of my favorite moments would be the overlapping of the titles. For example, when the Masters of Evil attacked the Avengers Mansion, they asked where Absorbing Man and Titania were. Well, they were over in Spider-Man picking up a new recruit from the airport. When you find characters to be compelling, knowing they can pop up anywhere is a fun little treat. Likewise, Shane "Iron Man 3" Black and Fred Dekker, dreamed of a world where all the classic Universal movie monsters inhabit the same time and space. Dracula could recruit the Wolfman, Mummy and Creature from the Black Lagoon to aid him in bringing Hell to earth. Frankenstein's monster could stand against his peers. In an ultimate bit of wish fulfillment, the actual heroes of the movies were little nerdy kids who loved horror as much as I did. This movie came around at just the right age for me as I was very much the target audience.
While some of the language has not aged well (lots of kids calling each other homos and fags), the rest of the movie has held up as a solid adventure flick. Seeing all the icons of horror together in one film was very rewarding, especially when they are beating the hell out of each other or using their unique abilities to terrorize this small town. Pretty much a great tween year transition from the bloodless classic horror to the harder stuff that lay ahead.
Yeah, John and I watched this a few years back (for the first time for me at least) and I really enjoyed it. I agree, any kind of mashup/team-up concept, when executed well, is pretty exciting.
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