Megamind (2010)

Overview
Review

Megamind © DreamWorks Animation. All Rights Reserved.

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Director:	Tom McGrath
Writers:	Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons
Cast:	Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt
Released:	Friday, November 5, 2010
Length:	96 minutes
Studio:	DreamWorks Animation
Genre:	Family, Comedy
Rating:	Some material may not be suitable for children.

Synopsis

When super villain Megamind defeats his archrival Metro Man, the world should be his oyster. But instead, Megamind falls into total despair. It turns out that life without a rival is life without a point for him. So he creates a new superhero rival. Unfortunately, the new hero wants to be a super villain too. Who can we turn to? Who has what it takes to stand up to this menace? Who will defend the innocent? Megamind! That's who.

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Megamind Theatrical Review

Animation is an excellent tool for bringing our greatest fantasies to life. In that world our characters can truly defy gravity, face outrageous villains, or go to places unimaginable. This is the case with the movie Megamind. It is the latest venture in the animation world using the age-old hero vs. villain storyline.

Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt do the voices for our two main characters Megamind (Ferrell) and Metro Man (Pitt). As the movie opens we are greeted with a very familiar tale of a baby being sent away from his home planet on the eve of its destruction. In this tale though, there is a second baby who is sent out on a similar path. As the two babies reach earth, naturally one lands at the home of a well-to-do family while the other lands in a federal prison. As they grow up they are instantly rivals but not for the reasons you would normally suspect. You see, in Megaminds case all he wants to do is fit in with the rest of the children at school, but because he tries to hard to make a good impression his plans inevitably backfire and he is punished for his actions. Naturally as he gets older he decides that if he can't be one of good guys then he will be the bad guy and sets out on his life mission to destroy Metro Man.

We now reach present day in the film and once again Megamind has decided to kidnap Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) and use her as bait to lure Metro Man into a trap. Of course to anyone who has ever read a comic book or watched a super hero cartoon, the following scenes come off quite redundant. What is funny about this movie is that it pokes fun at all of those classic tales. Case in point: when Roxanne is kidnapped and Megamind threatens her with his latest torture devices, she scoffs at him because she has seen it all before. What also makes this movie different is that in the next few scenes we watch as Megamind finally succeeds in taking out Metro Man and we are witness to what a villain would do when he finally achieves his goal. This being a comedy of course, it doesn't play quite the way you would expect. What Megamind realizes is that without a hero to fight he has no purpose in life. So of course what does he do? He sets out to make a new super hero to fight. Of course this plan backfires in his face and he now has to face the consequences of his actions.

From here the movie follows the fairly standard course, Megamind saves the day and gets the girl as well as the love of the people. Megamind is a fun movie to watch and it is quite funny. It uses the vintage tales of comic books as the backdrop for its plot while poking fun at the obvious holes in a lot of those old stories. The only real drawback to this film is that while it is enjoyable it doesn't quite add anything new to the genre. The movie is obviously geared more towards children because of not only the humor, but in the pacing of the film itself. It comes off very rushed and we never really get much character development beyond what is blatantly obvious to anyone watching. All in all, Megamind is a fun film regardless of these faults, so if you enjoy having a good laugh and seeing a straight forward entertaining film, than go check out Megamind.

-- Chris Rebholz

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