REVIEW: ‘Megamind’ is successful animated film
The Dreamworks team has done it again. They made an animated movie that was clever, hilarious and had a positive lesson to teach its young audience. While all of the movies have a lot of similarities, they are all also unique, and continue to be successful and entertaining for audiences of all ages.
Their newest creation, “Megamind,” was no exception. It was a fun movie to watch and lived up to all expectations I had for it.
The character of villain “Megamind,” voiced by Will Ferrell, is a lanky blue alien with a big head who was sent to Earth as a baby by his parents as his planet was being destroyed. He lands in a prison and is taught the ways of evil. While attending elementary school, his rivalry with superhero Metro Man, voiced by Brad Pitt, is born. No matter what “Megamind” tries, he is always disliked by his schoolmates, and Metro Man is always loved by them. He decides that he must be evil, because that was the only thing he was good at.
As they move into adulthood, the rivalry grows and becomes a routine: “Megamind” attempts something evil to destroy Metro Man, it doesn’t work, then Metro Man captures him, he gets sent to prison and then repeat. This is the endless cycle, that is, until “Megamind” finally wins. He finally defeats the great Metro Man, and therefore seizes control of the city.
Now victorious, “Megamind” is free to do whatever evil thing he wants with nobody to stop him. He enjoys this freedom for some time, but after a while he realizes how boring being evil is without having anyone to try and stop him. So he decides to try and create a new super hero to try and recreate the thrills he had fighting Metro Man.
Meanwhile, being disguised as an everyday regular guy named Bernard, he sparks up a romance with a beautiful news reporter named Roxanne Ritchi, voiced by Tina Fey. She really starts to fall for “Bernard”, which puts “Megamind” in an awkward situation.
Throughout the movie he faces challenges like these that question whether or not he really is evil. In the end, he has to face a huge problem in which he must decide once and for all if he wants to be good or evil.
“Megamind” was an excellent film to watch. It was very creative and funny, and had a phenomenal all-star cast to voice it. I am a huge Will Ferrell fan, and I also love Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill who played “Tighten.”
Another great thing was the soundtrack. “Megamind” was often seen rocking out to hits from AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Ozzy Osbourne and even Michael Jackson. I thought it was a way cool add-on that fit excellently with this film.
A major minus for me though is it was in 3D. For some reason I do not understand, it is now apparently a requirement that all animated movies must be in 3D. Why is this? It is such a pain for all moviegoers. It is especially annoying that it raises the ticket price about three dollars. So I have to pay three extra dollars to make the movie less enjoyable. While the picture quality was great, it would have been just as good, if not better, without the 3D. I cannot wait for this “3D revolution” to end.
Another thing that somewhat bugged me where some of the minor flaws in the plot. I know this is a movie more aimed at young audiences, but some of the flaws I think would be just as noticeable for kids. For example, there is a scene where a giant building destroys a street. Roxanne is thrown to safety on the sidewalk, but when the film shows a view from above, the sidewalk where she was is destroyed. It was just little things like this that got to me.
That said, “Megamind” was still an incredible movie that the Dreamworks animation team can put in the success column. It gives the audience more than they were expecting.
– jace.smellie@aggiemail.usu.edu