IR: Megamind

When deciding what to watch tonight, Megamind was the obvious choice. The trailers promised a funny, clever hero vs villain story (or should that be villain vs hero?), and we weren’t disappointed! Trumping majestically in the faces of all the crap out there nowadays, Megamind was a well-thought out, twisty, heart-warming, fresh tale of an alien who lands on earth as a baby (like Superman), and decides to play to his strength of evil mastermindedness since the other baby who lands at the same time as him, Metroman, is hogging all the glory as the good-guy. Though he plays the part of the villain, Megamind is really just a huge softie who lives with his all-time best friend Minion and his puppy-like flying brains-in-jars. A spanner is thrown into his comfy routine, however, when he actually manages to kill Metroman and gains all the power he’s been longing for. He soon realises that power isn’t what makes him happy…
I loved this film and laughed out loud at a few bits, which Jim will tell you is rare. Megamind himself is a very cool and ingenious person who is very entertaining to watch, as well as fish-in-mech-suit Minion of course. The role swapping of good guys and bad guys is well thought out and I hope that some kids who watch it get a less 2-D* view of the world because of it. As love-interest lady says, you should be judged by your actions, not by your ‘book cover’.
There’s not much to criticise about it that I can see, I just really enjoyed it and would encourage all adults and children to watch it too.

4/5

*Ironically, we watched it in 2-D...as all good people should! - Jim

Britta and I traipsed over a mile of slippery ice and sat through some truly appalling trailers to see this (Yogi Bear, anyone?); thankfully, our journey was not wasted. Megamind is, like its predecessor, How To Train Your Dragon, much better, wittier and cleverer than you might expect.
Throughout the years we have seen many deconstructions of the superhero, particularly in the medium that spawned it: Watchmen, Empowered, Animal Man, Astro City and atop all of them, in my opinion, Alan Moore and Gene Ha's mighty “Top Ten”, which you can find out about here. A few films, like Kick-Ass (itself a comic book adaptation) and My Super Ex Girlfriend, have covered it too.
However, we have been rather less inundated with deconstructions of the comic book villain (Unless you count Wanted. Which I don't.) This makes a noble attempt, and manages to be accurate to the golden and silver age villains whilst being complete accessible and not really geeky. Megamind is played with charm by Will Ferrell, a bit of a hit and miss actor, and in fact all the voice acting is spot on, especially David Cross (Tobias off of Arrested Development) as Minion, Megamind's servant/best friend/surrogate wife.
With Roxanne (Tiny Fey) the film also does a good partial deconstruction of the hero's girlfriend/damsel in distress character.
The production design is incredible; I am actually terrified at the speed with which digital animation has progressed. The textures in this film are particularly mouth watering, from string to hair to metal to latex (especially the latex. It even had talcum power stains on. That, my friends, is research.). Megamind has the coolest gear since Batman...in fact cooler because Batman didn't have THE BLACK MAMBA (see the film), and Metro City feels like a real place, even though the population spend quite a lot of time keeping out of the way. On second thought, maybe that's because they know the procedure when a hero and villain like to play games in your town- keep away from the shock and awe, and live several stories under ground.
Also Metro City must have a very efficient council, because all the roads seem in a remarkably good state despite taking a continual pounding. Cars, also, the butt-monkeys of the action adventure, are smashed without thought.
In fact this was the one area I really could have done with deconstruction of...while Iron Man is going round smashing cars to bits acting the big hero, no super-hero film either straight or parody has addressed the issue of property damage and civilian casualties.
Enough of that. Megamind has a great script, a fun plot and interesting subtext (some that children...won't get) and spiffy animation. Go see it.

4/5