Megamind would be a terrific case study to determine just how many films it either knowingly, or unknowingly, cribs from to make up its duration. Of course, there’s very few films out there now that are truly original these days, but in the case of Megamind it has to deal with the fact it’s no different than films that were released even this year.
The plot is extraordinarily similar to Despicable Me and the music ranging from AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” not only reeks of cliched trailer music, but it could also serve as the soundtrack for Iron Man 2. But those are just a few nitpicks, we’ll get to the rest shortly. Otherwise, there are a few mildly comedic moments in this rather stale production, but they are too few and too forgettable to truly say they make an impact.
Megamind centers on two alien orphans, jettisoned from their dying planets who end up landing on earth (Superman anyone). Between the two, Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell), the blue alien with bulbous head, becomes the evil ying to the dashing Metro Man’s (voiced by Brad Pitt) yang. The two battle it out through to adulthood, playing out stereotypical superhero themes in montage fashion until the unfathomable happens, Megamind defeats Metro Man, leaving Metro City unprotected and bowing before him. However, this isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be for a supervillain to be without an arch rival.
Bored without a nemesis, Megamind uses his powers to create a new superhero. Unfortunately, when he decides on using a goofy TV cameraman (voiced by Jonah Hill) as his test subject he ends up creating Tighten, a would-be hero turned villain. What is Megamind to do? From here you should pretty much already know where the story goes, but if you don’t I won’t ruin it.
The design and animation of the film is wholly uninspired. Most of it looks exactly like previous DreamWorks animated entry Monsters vs. Aliens and Tighten looks and feels as if he is a dumbed down version of Syndrome from The Incredibles. This results in the entire movie feeling like you’ve been-there, seen-that. I was bored by the fact I could anticipate the plot’s twists and turns long before they arrived, and even worse it felt like I was watching a movie made up of all the cliche elements of films that came before it.
Megamind has a crew of robot servants that are freakishly similar to the minions in Despicable Me. And speaking of minions, Minion is actually the name of Megamind’s sharp-toothed, alien fish sidekick voiced by David Cross, a character that ironically enough is the best part of the whole film. As for Roxanne (voiced by Tina Fey), the film’s damsel in distress, it’s a character as uninspired as it gets. Each of her lines could have been ripped from the pages of “Writing Screen Dialogue for Dummies.”
The script comes from first-time screenwriters Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons and it desperately needed a polish or even a complete rewrite. On top of the film itself delivering absolutely nothing new, the dialogue is dull, dull, dull. I will admit there’s a seedling of a good story here, but this story takes too many anticipated turns that leaves little opportunity to explore new avenues or take any narrative risks. Instead this feels like an animated version of every superhero movie you’ve ever seen.
Megamind may perform well and I simply had an adverse reaction to it, but there’s no way I would recommend you spend your money on this film. As a home video rental it will surely suffice, but at today’s box-office prices it’s not worth the money you’ll have to shell out for you and the family.
