Movie Review: Megamind

Superhero films have donned the multiplexes since the 1940s so it must be hard trying to come up with something new by now. And yes, the spoofing of said superhero films has been done and will continue ad nauseam. But with every character being thrown at us from Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Watchmen, X-Men; it’s the original characters along the way that really have the ability to stand out. M. Night Shyamalan may have given us the fantastic Unbreakable but it was Brad Bird who broke the mold when he delivered us The Incredibles (arguably one of the greatest superhero films of all time).

Now DreamWorks Animation is jumping on the bandwagon to bring us its slice of the pie, with Will Ferrell in voice command as the giant blue-headed Megamind. Director Tom McGrath (both Madagascar films) and his team of sophomore writers, Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, deliver us something more unexpected than the trailers and film spots will lead you to believe. While some of it borrows heavily from the best while giving nods to the rest, they still manage to bring something different and largely hilarious to theaters this weekend.

Megamind has just arrived on Earth along with the goody little two-shoes Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt). While Metro Man was delivered under the Christmas tree to a wealthy family, Megamind winds up crash landing in Metro City Prison. Raised by his fellow inmates with the belief that evil is good, it’s not until his time off for good behavior that he meets up with Metro Man in school and their rivalry is born.

Megamind just wants to continue the bouts between him and Metro Man always trying, but never winning, to take over control of Metro City (or Metrocity as Megamind always mispronounces). He finally hatches a scheme, assisted by his ever trusting Minion (voiced by David Cross), involving kidnapping local TV reporter Roxanne Ritchi (voiced by Tina Fey) to lure in Metro Man and destroy him once and for all. When his plan seems to finally work he finds himself a man without a song.

Megamind now finds himself ruling Metro City and running rampant through the streets stealing himself everything from the Mona Lisa to the Ark of the Covenant but eventually he finds himself bored having existential conversations with inanimate objects. After he takes the form of local nerd museum worker Bernard (voiced by Justin Theroux), he finds himself convinced of a new plan to make his own superhero foe and accidentally finds it in the form of Roxanne’s unrequited love slave Hal (voiced by Jonah Hill).

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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