Megamind: Movie Review

Megamind: Movie Review

.Megamind
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, David Cross, Jonah Hill
Director: Tom McGrath
So with the endless, long summer holidays just around the corner, there's a push to keep the kids entertained.
Enter the latest animated outing, this time from Dreamworks and starring Will Ferrell in Megamind.
Ferrell is big blue headed supervillain Megamind, a kind of cross between the Mars Attacks creatures and the Mekon. Dispatched from his dying planet by his parents, he begins a rivalry with Metroman (voiced by Brad Pitt), who was also sent from a dying world by family.
But unlike Metroman who landed in an estate with well to do parents, Megamind crashed into the penitentiary and was brought up as a villain.
After years of rivalry "where Metroman would win some battles, but I (Megamind) would almost win others," Megamind finally gains the upper hand and kills Metroman off.
However, after the initial thrill of dispatching his lifelong rival, ole Bluey realizes that his life is quite empty without someone to thwart his dastardly plans - and so conceives to give superpowers to a regular schlub to give him purpose in life.
Those powers go accidentally to Hal (played by Jonah Hill) who's in love with reporter Roxanne (Tina Fey). But when Hal's rejected, the world has a new villain to fight&.and it's upto Megamind to save the day.
Thematically similar in many ways to this year's Despicable Me, Megamind is still good quality family fare with a spark of originality about it.
But it takes a little while to settle in - the initial 3D with things being thrown in the air is lazy and unoriginal (and seems to be only there to showcase the fact the film is in 3D).
Once the film's settled down, there's much to enjoy though - with unexpected humour and great one liners through out (some of which will require a second viewing to really pick up on.)
There's also plenty of riffing on the Superman myth; right from the opening sequence to Megamind becoming a Brandoesque mentor to Hal when he gives him new powers. There's also some great visual gags peppering the film throughout - the best of which is an Obama inspired poster which amuses greatly.
While Ferrell brings his patented lunatic schtick and absurd banter to the role and the rest of the cast do well, yet it's Arrested Development's David Cross who really shines in this.
As Megamind's minion, a sort of fish in a goldfish bowl atop a robot, Cross is just brilliant with some of the best lines.
It's inevitable there'll be a sequel to this given how well it's already done in the states and to be honest, you can't do worse than this family entertainment piece to kill off a little time during the Christmas holidays.