If you loved The Incredibles, den you won’t mind Megamind! It like a diet version of de former – great-looking and still enjoyable, but wit half de charm, humor, and clever plotting. It won’t fill you up wit needless terrifik memories.
Movie get off to fantastik start wit opening sekwence/parody of Superman movie. Little alien baby packed away in space pod wit his alien goldfish companion and fired off into space. Unfortunately for him, he not only space baby fleeing a doomed world dat day. Other space baby beat him to Earth and end up adopted by wealthy loving family. Our space baby end up raised by loving prison convikts. Talk about tuff love!
Growing up, our boy misunderstood at school – and showed up by space-born rival. Me feel very sorry for him and scenes make Monster want to go out and hug a bad guy. Which me did, hugging skeevy looking gangsta who always selling crystal meth on corner of 4th and Sesame. Two hours later, after me discharged from hospital minus wallet and four teeth, Monster feeling less sympathetic and huggy, but certainly more worldly.
Anyway, eventually, both grow up and choose career paths. Rival decides to become superhero and calls hisself…Metro Man!
Our kid decide to become a supervillain and call hisself…Megamind!
He have many great battles wit Metro Man – but always get his ass kicked. Until de day he succeed! He aktually kill his hated rival, Metro Man!
De End!
No, wait! For some reazon dat never fully explained, Megamind miss Metro Man. Yes, me suppose it becuz a supervillain not really have purpose witout a superhero to battle. It be like a yang missing his ying (Monster reminded of Grover’s uncle who lost HIS ying in machine shop accident, but dat a story for another time). It make sense on a philosophical level but it never expressed in any grounded way. As a result, it feel like a big cheat. In many ways, it indikative of movie’s biggest fault – an unwillingness on part of writer to fully exploit movie’s potenshul. Megamind only half as funny as it should be; only half as smart as it could be.
Using holographic disguise generator (BTW, it on Monster’s Christmas list) Megamind woo pretty reporter. But he still (presumably) missing a challenge so he create a superhero by injekting regular shlub wit super DNA.
But supershlub turn out to be major supervillain. And so, Megamind have to become superhero!
Final battle offers great visuals and even a cool twist or two dat Monster not reveal for fear of giving away spoilers dat Metro Man still alive and dat Megamind use his dehydrating gun to save hisself.
Bad guy becomes a good guy and gets de girl and everyone learn valuable lesson. Megamind learn it never too late to change. Reporter learn it always good to keep an open mind. And Cookie Monster learn me missed a similar movie called Despicable Me dat me will have to watch somewhere down de line.
Verdikt: Better den most but not super.
Rating: 7 chocolate chippee cookies.
The names alone are a reason to run….Ferrel, Fey, Pitt.
On another note, my father passed away 51 years ago today. I was very young, but he was a great dad, WWII veteran and role model. Spent the day remembering…
I agree Cookie – the movie was good, but it never really lived up to its potential. I think I need a keyboard macro for the last part of that sentence. I did get quite a few chuckles out of it, but I could never figure what the movie really wanted to convey – was it that good and evil cannot exist without each other? That they really do have a yin/yan relationship? Megamind even briefly touches on that. Is it that true love can turn the heart even of the most wicked? It sort of goes after that with Megamind’s and Roxanne’s relationship. Is it that what’s really important is to find out who you really need to be and be true to that vision of yourself, like MetroMan kind of says near the end? Or is it that true evil is embodied by greedy, nerdy rednecks? I’m going with the last one.
Also, it never really seems to effectively cover the range from children to adult humour like “The Incredibles” did. It mostly seemed like it was either aimed at kids, or it was very adult. The brilliance of “The Incredibles” was that it combined both so smoothly.
I did like the various references to the Superman movies, including the opening where AGAIN the question must be asked if the baby can escape the black hole/destruction of Krypton, why can’t everyone else? And, where Megamind says “Why can’t the world just have a reset button? But I’ve determined that’s scientifically impossible.” (I’m assuming a reference to the totally obnoxious ending of Superman I.) And also Titan’s flying through the city after picking Roxanne up on the rooftop/balcony, only this time it goes terribly and she absolutely hates it because really, it would be horribly awkward and uncomfortable, and makes no f%&$^ sense.
So yeah, it was a fairly entertaining movie, if not great. That’s certainly more that can be said for a lot in this genre.
Next week is Thor – and I have to say I will not be able to watch that movie without constantly thinking about small grey aliens.
MegaMind’s psychology is baffling, yes, but he is an alien after all.
I saw the last half of the movie. I thought it was cute enough. I might have liked it better if I saw the school scenes that made him a more sympathetic character, or I might have felt manipulated, guess I won’t know until I try.
I saw Megamind a couple years ago, so I didn’t rewatch it this time around. I just refreshed my memory via Wikipedia. But I guess it’s telling that at first, I wasn’t even sure I’d seen it (just from the title alone). I relied heavily on the Wikipedia plot summary, because most of this movie was lost to the sands of time in my brain. Either I’m getting old, or it wasn’t that memorable. Or both.
Cookie, I highly recommend Despicable Me, but it’s not a superhero movie. More like an evil genius movie. Imagine a movie about Megamind, but with no Metro Man, only another evil superbaddie who gets better press than the Megamind guy. I saw Megamind first, though, so I didn’t interpret Megamind as being too derivative of Despicable Me, the way a lot of other reviewers did. Personally, I think they have only a passing similarity to one another, Despicable Me being the far superior film. It’s very funny, very touching, and very memorable.
Unlike Megamind. I have to admit, though, something about Megamind stuck: my husband and I often answer the telephone with “O-lo” instead of “hello”. (We only do this when we know the spouse is calling, not for other people.) For a while we were saying “Shool” for “school” too, but that one faded pretty quickly.
is Metro Man meant to be Bruce Campbell? Look at that chin!
Apart from the inevitable comparisons with the superior The Incredibles I thought Megamind was a pretty solid movie. Certainly an improvement on a lot of other Dreamworks movies. (I’m reminded of this comparison between Pixar and Dreamworks: http://themovieblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pixar-vs-dreamworks.jpg)
I liked seeing a movie from the point of view of the villain’s story. Other genres seem to revel in following the stories of evildoers. Gangsters, thieves, door to door salesmen . . . but rarely do we get to see things from the point of view of the evil villain in a superhero universe. Of course, ultimately the villain sees the errors of his ways and ends up using his talents for good instead of evil but it’s a kid’s movie and it must have “A Message” so I can cut it some slack.
If you think about it too much, though, you realise that Megamind wasn’t really very evil to begin with. He just wanted to be liked but was snubbed because he was different and a bit inept. He would kidnap the girl, fight Metro Man, lose, go to jail, escape and start it all over again. Not really much of a threat to anyone. Tighten, on the other hand, was much more evil. He was basically destroying the city with little thought to who he hurt. All Megamind needed was the love of a good woman to tip him over the edge and become a force for good.
You should definitely check out Despicable Me which should be classed as a superhero movie even though there are no superheroes in it.
Wait, what are we doing?
Sorry, the evil with good heart are my favorites. Also how can be evil one with a goldfish 😆
Speaking of evil:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/paramount-mgm-sued-by-g-i-joe-writers-for-23m/
Very clever lawyer with a Prima Facie bonus for a complete home run. 😈
I am in love with this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCn04iXkBg
😀
Great news that these girls were found alive after 10 years missing! It is a good day! 🙂
das
This can’t be real?
http://arrfscarf.com/icecream/
Can it!?
Where’s Joey today? I hope everything is okay.
*looks worried*
das
From Skua’s posted article re the GI Joe sequel:
“These original inventions, which make Plaintiffs’ Proposed Sequel a compelling piece of story-telling…”
LOL
Haven’t seen this yet, so will have to check it out. Have seen, and Loved, Despicable Me. One of my favorites, and it reminds me a LOT of someone we know around here. *raised eyebrow* and 😀
Oh, and Metro Man looks like Mitt Romney. 🙂
7 cookies sounds about right. I watched this with my two 4 year old nephews and it didn’t hold their attention except when there was serious action on the screen.
I saw Mega Mind but it doesn’t really stick in the brain. Incredibles I can quote, and can watch endlessly. I’m halfway through Django at the moment, I’m enjoying it but I’m also missing a lot of it by having to cover my eyes through some of the gorier bits.
I think Metro Man might be Ryan Seacrest. At least in name (not profile). I think Patrick saw this with his class. I will put it on the ever growing list.