MyRating: YY1/2Director: Tom McGrath
Voice: Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Ben Stiller
MPAA: Rated PG for action and some language
Megamind, a big headed blue alien (voice by Will Ferrell) and Metro Man (Brad Pitt) were destined to be enemies since they were babies. Both sent from different planets to the Earth due to the destruction of their own planets, the infant Metro Man landed at a wealthy family's house, while the infant Megamind landed at prison. And both were raised differently, with a different fate. While Metro Man, who has an extraordinary superpower, grew up to become a superhero, the defender of Metro City, at the other hand, Megamind, who has the nature of wickedness and troublemaker inside him, grew up to become a supervillain to rival Metro Man.
When Megamind finally succeeds in overthrowing Metro Man out of the competition, different from what he expects, Megamind quickly becomes bored as there is no one left for him to fight. It is not a fun world without a good-side enemy, since no one is capable to stop his evildoings anymore. So, he creates a new superhero as his enemy, named Titan (Jonah Hill). But instead of helping the world, Titan uses his new power to destroy it. From that moment on, Megamind finds himself in the middle of identity crisis, as he is put in the position to save the helpless world from Titan. And his secret affection for the feisty news reporter, Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), finally makes him realize that to become a good man is not that bad afterall.
This is a typical DreamWorks animated movie, who focuses more on the comedic side, rather than the dramatic side. An animated movie made purely to have fun with, rather than a movie that will challenge you to think, feel or even reflect something out of it. And the characters created should be funny or should look funny, rather than the characters that possess human heart in them. The same as the dialogs that mainly focuses on funny and silly things, that is supposed to force you to laugh, rather than thoughtful dialogs that will make you smile from the bottom of your heart.
What did I expect anyway? It's an animated movie! And an animated movie is supposed to be fun. And I know many people were having great fun with Megamind and will not agree with what I said. But to be honest, I have to say that I didn't have much fun with this movie as what I've expected when entering the theater. The main reason was because what I saw was a movie full of slapstick (and childish) comedy, with less amount of heart that I like from a smart animated movie. The storyline? I didn't enjoyed it that much either. It was just something below satisfactory for me. When I found myself in the theater where many other people (especially children) laughing while watching this movie, while at the same time I could not laugh as I didn't think it was that funny, then I knew that the story and the jokes just didn't fit me. It was almost the same reason why I didn't enjoy Despicable Me. If I have to compare it with How to Train Your Dragon, another DreamWorks' piece earlier this year, then Megamind definitely has less charm, smart, and touching moments that 'Dragon' has offered and made me fall in love with.
The voices behind the characters were quite good. Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Tina Fey did give interesting colors to their characters. The 3D? It was just okay, not really outstanding, as I have seen many more outstanding 3D animated movies this year. In overall, Megamind was just another average animated movie for me this year. (MJ)
