'Megamind' blends farce and fantasy
“Megamind” is both farce and fantasy, a vivid 3-D animated comedy filled with zany characters, switched identities, reversing roles and surprise plot entanglements.
Then come the standard jokey pop culture references and other derivative material that suffocate the story's originality and diffuse its intelligent exploration of the roots of villainy and the dangers of pigeonholing young students.
“Megamind” begins as an odd nod to the introduction of 1978's “Superman.” Two baby aliens a white one with Aryan fine features and a blue one with a bulbous head and pointy chin are dispatched to Earth from a dying planet.
The white baby crash lands in a mansion. The blue one winds up in a prison. The two grow up as fierce rivals, with the handsome alien easily besting the blue one for human attention and appreciation.
Eventually, the entitled alien grows up to become muscular superhero Metro Man, the beloved protector of Metro City and a man who speaks with Brad Pitt's commanding voice.
The blue alien reluctantly becomes the villainous Megamind, voiced by Will Ferrell.
He doesn't want to be a villain. But the superhero role has already been filled, and Megamind has been rejected by society on the basis of his appearance and awkward social skills.
What else can he do but use his intellectual gifts for the one thing at which he can excel: being bad.
Megamind becomes a super criminal, dedicated to fighting Metro Man and kidnapping TV reporter Roxanne Ritchi (voiced by Tina Fey) as many times as he can.
Megamind has abducted Roxanne so many times that she can't even feign concern for her safety anymore.
This is a problem with “Megamind.” We never sense that he's as bad and terrible as we're supposed to believe, especially for a guy serving 88 life sentences in prison. For what? Being bossy to his fishlike alien companion Minion (voiced by David Cross)?
Entertaining the public by putting on fantastic WWE-style bouts with Metro Man?
Then, in the film's most unexpected development, Metro City loses Metro Man, and Megamind suddenly realizes he has lost his purpose.
The Blue One needs a hero to give his own life meaning. Megamind uses Metro Man's DNA to create a new superhero, but he chooses to create him from Hal, Roxanne's cameraman, a cloying, clingy character voiced by Jonah Hill.
Beefed up to Metro Man proportions, Hal doesn't hesitate to use his new super powers for personal gain and petty revenge. So, the alien who was nurtured into villainy winds up inadvertently creating a villain through nature.
At that point, Roxanne's prescient observation comes oddly true: In the presence of evil, forces of good always rise to oppose it.
Sometimes, that force can be blue.
The voice talents in #8220;Megamind#8221; are pinpoint perfect, although Megamind's impression of Marlon Brando's coif-challenged Jor-El from #8220;Superman#8221; wears out its welcome quickly.
The 3-D effects work quietly and effectively without screaming for attention.
But what exactly does #8220;Megamind#8221; say about being smart? I dunno.
First, it portrays intelligence as a quality of outcasts and rejects, not something associated with popular superheros.
Later, Megamind is revealed to be something of a dummy who can't pronounces certain words (for comic effect) and doesn't even know what a window is.
This movie could have said something about the importance of intelligence and education in the fight against evil.
But no.
It couldn't make up its megamind.
“Megamind”
<p>Rating: ★ ★ ½</p>
<p>Starring: Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross </p>
<p>Directed by: Tom McGrath</p>
<p>Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 96 minutes</p>