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Written by Patrick Cronin.

Megamind review

This film’s success rides on its concept, its arch: the turning of an evil super villain into a good superhero. One feels the freshness of this idea for not being the usual good superhero with darker ambivalent shadows, such as Batman. The arch is the total recognition and eventual purging of Megamind’s (voiced by Will Ferrell) menace from himself.

If this is not too much of a spoiler, after a brief recounting of Megamind’s childhood and lifelong relationships, Metroman (voiced by Brad Pitt) is killed in the opening sequence. Metrocity is re-named Mega-trocity under its new command of Megamind. And thus the film begins. The marketing was brave in that this is also where the trailer ends.

It is true that the film does possess the usual stereotypical minor characters and clichés, and after Pixar it is difficult to excuse any children’s film for clichéd dialogue and repetitive cinematic moments, such as parting lovers’ looking back over their shoulders’ at just the wrong time. But nevertheless, the overriding concept and rather successful humor seem to supersede these tropes. Despite its loose cranks and rusty overused cogs, the machine nonetheless moves along smoothly.

This is largely, I think, due to the new and even original idea of the film. Especially in the superhero genre, one rarely stumbles on narratives that focus on the evil figure as one of deep interest. We are too used to seeing that evil is not only banal but also made of cardboard.

I am glad also that the film involved the crowds of people as a measurement of Megamind’s character. The people of a city, which a superhero watches over, is, it is true, a trope of superhero films. Think of how the crowds of Gotham shift according to the manipulations of Penguin in Burton’s Batman Returns, and their fickle loosing and gaining favor of Penguin and of Batman himself. My one reservation of that film is in its lack to fully resolve this tension, though still by far the best Batman film. So it is left for granted that the city once again takes Batman in their favor.

Crudely, Megamind does play out such a tension of favor and validation. The city, of course, at first despises Megamind; however, as the narrative continues, as Megamind changes, the city begins to change its mind as well. I have written on this issue in my review of Iron Man 2, for in this case, just as what was missed in that film, is the stake at which Megamind must resolve his problems: he has more to loose than his life and those lives of the city, but the city’s respect for him. He has to prove his morality, not merely his power. Even Lincoln said what better ambition is there than to win the respect of others?

Well, in spite of all this hyperbole, I will say that this aspect is only a very small figure on the whole canvas of the film. Its true success lies in its concept, and for it I am willing to pass over the clichés with more interest in the characterization. Along with How to Train Your Dragon, this is another win for Dreamworks.

8.5/10

Written by Patrick Cronin.