Film Reviews

Megamind

• Rating:
• Director: Tom McGrath
• Starring: Brad Pitt
• Details: US/95mins PG

Just like buses, you wait ages for a 3D animated movie about a dastardly but ultimately sweet villain and then two come along at once. Arriving hot on the heels of Despicable Me, Megamind has obviously had more money thrown at it; the animation is slicker, and generally so is the production. But where the film centring on Steve Carrell's bad (really good) guy relied heavily on the charm of its cute kiddie support, Will Ferrell's mean (misunderstood) alien is the source for the majority of laughs in Megamind. And laugh you will - this is very funny stuff.
Ferrell voices Megamind, a villain who was sent to earth when his own planet faced destruction around the same time as Brad Pitt's Metroman. While Megamind's difficult upbringing in a prison resulted in a mammoth chip on his shoulder, Metroman has had a far plusher early life and grew up to be a superhero. Now, the two are sworn enemies. When Megamind finally wins a battle after countless losses, he finds himself yearning for the man he thought he hated.
Very much a gag-driven production that is only technically a kid's film by definition of its genre; it may not break any sort of new ground in terms of characters or plot, but does that really matter all that much when you're laughing? Making adults chuckle seems to happen by accident in a lot of family flicks, be it animated or otherwise, so it's refreshing to see Megamind wearing the fact that it's a comedy first firmly on its sleeve.
Dreamworks animation have never been a studio for churning out character driven fare, instead concentrating more on the quips. While the folks at Pixar were tugging at the heartstrings and putting as much effort into the scripts as the animation, other studios generally pushed one or the other. Megamind is probably the most fun, non-Pixar film, to make its way to your multiplex since the second Shrek. Somehow, even just voicing a character, Will Ferrell's eccentric, mordant humour managed to shine through – always a good thing.
It's hardly original, and really young kids probably won't find too much to distract them, but anyone over 8 should find this hilarious.

Review by Mike Sheridan