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Movie review: ‘Megamind’
By Sandra Olmsted
While trading on reference and parodies of numerous superhero films, Megamind director Tom McGrath and screenwriters Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simon consider the effects of nurture on the nature of human and superhuman beings in this new film from Dreamworks Animation. The filmmakers also consider the effects of bullying; fortunately, the film doesn’t get preachy and handles it all with humor.
In a homage to Superman, two baby boys are placed in space pods to escape from dying planets, but the two pods bounce off each as they travel to earth, and thus begins a great rivalry. The blue baby, who will become the supervillian Megamind, is ricocheted out of this chance at an upper class life when the escape pod of the more humanoid and much more handsome baby, destined to become Metro Man, knocks Megamind’s pod out of the way. By grade school, Megamind is the permanent outcast, and Metro Man the perpetual hero.
Consequently, Megamind decides to embrace evil since he’s only good at being bad. With the help of Minion, the fishlike creature sent along with him to earth and charged with protecting him, Megamind embarks on a career of crime, which primarily include threatening Metro City, trying to kill Metro Man, and kidnapping Roxanne Ritchi, the reporter who is Metro Man’s love interest but also the girl of Megamind’s own dreams.
Although all his plots to get even with Metro Man fail, Megamind pursues his quest until one day he succeeds in killing Metro Man. Unfortunately, Megamind’s joy is short lived because he discovers his life is meaningless without the other by which he defines himself. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, Megamind decides to create another superhero to be his nemesis by infusing someone with Metro Man’s DNA.
However, like most of his plans, this one is seriously flawed and/or doomed, and Metro Man’s DNA gets infused into the wrong subject, namely Roxanne’s nerdy cameraman, who doesn’t have the nurture in his past to support a superhero nature. Thus, Titan is created, and Megamind happily plans a future of big battle where he is not too badly beaten. Unfortunately, Titan doesn’t have it in himself to be a good guy despite Megamind’s best efforts to train him.
Meanwhile, Megamind has found a way to woo Roxanne himself, or rather in the guise of someone else; however, Titan also desires Roxanne. While Titan’s human attempts to woo Roxanne were childlike and inept to the point of painful, his superhuman attempts are dangerous and diabolical, which puts Megamind, the resident supervillian, in the uncomfortable position of rescuing the girl.
McGrath’s film also looks at how those who are not as handsome, talented, or charismatic cope with disappointment, rejection, and ill treatment, sometimes in the form of bullying and sometimes honest reaction. However, the point is clearly made that how people are treated affects how they behave and who they become and that everyone should look beyond the exterior to find the person beneath.
The voice performances by Will Ferrell as Megamind, Brad Pitt as Metro Man, Tina Fey as Roxanne, Jonah Hill as Tighten, and David Cross as Minion, the amusing comic relief sidekick, are perfectly understated. The filmmakers do an excellent job of using the 3D technology as film language rather than a gimmick, and from that standpoint, it is worth the small difference in ticket prices to see Megamind in 3D. Megamind, a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG for action and some language, runs 96 minutes, and opens Nov. 5.
