Movie Review: Megamind (2010)
A weak animated feature that feels like you've seen it all before
Photo: DreamWorks Animation
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 voice cast includes Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller, Tom McGrath and J.K. Simmons. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Megamind" is a DreamWorks Animation release, directed by Tom McGrath and is rated PG for action and some language. The running time is 1 hour 36 minutes.
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.
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I guessed this would suck.
no acctually every person who watched it that i know said it was very good and funny.
I would heed this review and not go see this movie, but then again, you thought Despicable Me was a great movie. Therefore, I am inclined to go see this movie for myself. Surely, it has to be better than Despicable Me at least.
Yeah, if I remember your reasons for disliking Despicable Me correctly won't have you dislike this movie the same way. However, that doesn't mean the other issues with the film still won't play a part.
1. Horrible Voice acting by Steve Carrell (very hard to listen to)
2. Uninteresting story
3. Very lame comedy (i.e. blood oozing out after a girl goes into the deadly coffin, but then it turns out to be juice… that wasn't funny at all.)
4. Some inconsistencies with the animation (His astronaut suit was turned pink in the dryer, but when he gets in the ship, his boots and helmet are pink as well)
5. Unsatisfying character development, etc.
I don't know if I'm just too picky, but you have to admit that Pixar wouldn't EVER have any of those faults. We once spoke about this in an email, but I think critics hold animated movies to a much lower standard.
Does this website like anything?
I just found it, was skimming reviews, and it seems like absolutely nothing gets good reviews.
I'm not shocked over Megamind being lackluster, but the reviews here seem a little elitist.
I try to only give good reviews to good movies, just a personal policy. For a look at all my reviews, which can be sorted by year and grade, click here and you should find an answer to your question.
personal? this seems like you're own oppinion. I went and saw Megamind with 6 of my friends and they all loved it.
I do believe you had a bad reaction to it; it's certainly not a great film , but it is entertaining.
This is a really BAD review, and I don't think the movie deserves it. It has some achievements and lovable characters, and, even if it's not original, and the argument has its flawes, I still had a good time.
Maybe the fact that I hadn't yet watched Despicable Me helped, 'couse I wasn't comparing the two films.