Megamind
Somehow, Megamind is simultaneously more and less surprising than one would imagine. In this unique moment in computer animation, when studios like Pixar seem to up the technical and emotional ante with every subsequent film (Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up), there is an increasing pressure to mimic that formula, to live up to the increasingly high standards set by the giants of this business. Megamind, the newest offering from DreamWorks Animation (itself a studio that helped set the CG standard, since only the Shrek films have given Pixar a run for its gobs of money), can be noted for at once attempting to break from and clinging desperately to stereotypes of both animation and superhero films. Still, the resulting movie is pretty damn fun to watch.
The film is at once a clever send-up of and faithful ode to every hero origin story ever told. Its surface plot quirk -- that our "hero" is actually a bumbling blue super-villain with a noggin the size of Krypton -- is obviously intended to give way to a story about how even the bad guy has sweetness at his core, but Megamind unfurls in a slightly different way.
The film's opening half introduces its colorful cast of characters, each of them voiced by one of the most popular comic actors working today. There is the titular anti-hero himself, who speaks in one of those goofy mock-Shakesperian lilts that Will Ferrell specializes in, and whose lifelong goal is to fail admirably against his much-stronger heroic foil, Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt, doing his best George Clooney impersonation). The obligatory damsel in distress is Roxanne Ritchi, local news reporter and Metro Man's presumed girlfriend, whose playful cynicism is either the result of a smart script or Tina Fey's attitude. For the film's first extended act, these characters interact in a manner one might expect from a subversive superhero comedy -- Ferrell intones a combination of dry one-liners and manic zingers, Pitt plays up Metro Man's dreamy beefcake quality, Fey adds a solid dose of witty charm, and there is strong support from David Cross as Megamind's aquatic minion (named "Minion") and Jonah Hill as Roxanne's doe-eyed sidekick, the film's version of Jimmy Olsen. In this first half,Megamind sustains a clever send-up of the superhero genre.
Then the film changes focus. To describe precisely how would be to give the whole movie away, since nearly everything that happens after Megamind shifts gears has been deftly absent from its onslaught of high-energy advertisements. But without revealing anything, let it suffice that this surprise twist makes the film not more unexpected, but actually more conventional. The second half of Megamind is a slap-dash, swashbuckling, sugar-fueled dose of traditional superhero saga, effectively inventing a new origin story with the tried-and-true message that a hero is not born, but made. Fey loses her edge, Pitt all but disappears, and Ferrell is left to ponder axioms like, "with great power comes great responsibility." And yet it's fun. Really fun. With the energy level ramped up and the script working on the level of a bubblegum comic book, Megamind is transformed from wry spoof to earnest blast.
Entering the theater, one might not imagine much more than frothy goofball humor, and there is certainly plenty of that to go around, but Megamind is a weird chore to wrap one's -- no pun intended -- mind around. Yes, it pleases the cynic in all of us to see funny people mock tired clichés, but it also stirs the kid inside us to watch a new hero come to terms with his newfound power. Megamind is a film of conflicting story arcs, yet in spite of their odd juxtaposition, each is equally, jubilantly entertaining.
The film is at once a clever send-up of and faithful ode to every hero origin story ever told. Its surface plot quirk -- that our "hero" is actually a bumbling blue super-villain with a noggin the size of Krypton -- is obviously intended to give way to a story about how even the bad guy has sweetness at his core, but Megamind unfurls in a slightly different way.
The film's opening half introduces its colorful cast of characters, each of them voiced by one of the most popular comic actors working today. There is the titular anti-hero himself, who speaks in one of those goofy mock-Shakesperian lilts that Will Ferrell specializes in, and whose lifelong goal is to fail admirably against his much-stronger heroic foil, Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt, doing his best George Clooney impersonation). The obligatory damsel in distress is Roxanne Ritchi, local news reporter and Metro Man's presumed girlfriend, whose playful cynicism is either the result of a smart script or Tina Fey's attitude. For the film's first extended act, these characters interact in a manner one might expect from a subversive superhero comedy -- Ferrell intones a combination of dry one-liners and manic zingers, Pitt plays up Metro Man's dreamy beefcake quality, Fey adds a solid dose of witty charm, and there is strong support from David Cross as Megamind's aquatic minion (named "Minion") and Jonah Hill as Roxanne's doe-eyed sidekick, the film's version of Jimmy Olsen. In this first half,Megamind sustains a clever send-up of the superhero genre.
Then the film changes focus. To describe precisely how would be to give the whole movie away, since nearly everything that happens after Megamind shifts gears has been deftly absent from its onslaught of high-energy advertisements. But without revealing anything, let it suffice that this surprise twist makes the film not more unexpected, but actually more conventional. The second half of Megamind is a slap-dash, swashbuckling, sugar-fueled dose of traditional superhero saga, effectively inventing a new origin story with the tried-and-true message that a hero is not born, but made. Fey loses her edge, Pitt all but disappears, and Ferrell is left to ponder axioms like, "with great power comes great responsibility." And yet it's fun. Really fun. With the energy level ramped up and the script working on the level of a bubblegum comic book, Megamind is transformed from wry spoof to earnest blast.
Entering the theater, one might not imagine much more than frothy goofball humor, and there is certainly plenty of that to go around, but Megamind is a weird chore to wrap one's -- no pun intended -- mind around. Yes, it pleases the cynic in all of us to see funny people mock tired clichés, but it also stirs the kid inside us to watch a new hero come to terms with his newfound power. Megamind is a film of conflicting story arcs, yet in spite of their odd juxtaposition, each is equally, jubilantly entertaining.
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