Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
11/23/10
Dreamworks
Animation was specifically designed by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg to be
Disney Animation's arch-nemesis, and he succeeded so brilliantly that,
if not for the Mouse House's fortuitous partnership with Pixar, Dreamworks
would have ground his former employers into the dirt. Upon reflection,
it's not hard to see why: yes, Katzenberg embraced emerging technologies
of CGI animation and 3D faster than his competitors, but the real difference
between Dreamworks and Disney lies beyond the animated frames, in their
storytelling strategies. Disney still follows a fairy tale model
perfected by founder Walt over 60 years ago: innocent characters
pine for Prince Charming or a real family and defeat nasty witches and
sorcerers to prevail. The Dreamworks story is built for our less
optimistic times, generally starting with a corrupted character who's given
up hope and settled for a vision of himself as a monster or failure.
During the course of the adventure, they get a second chance. The
biggest Dreamworks hits have been the Shrek series, which aggressively
thumbs its nose at the fairy tale purity of Disney flicks, but perhaps
the purest expression of the Dreamworks model is the new superhero comedy
Megamind. Charting the eternal struggle between two aliens
who arrive on Earth under very different circumstances, it proves surprisingly
thematically rich, even when the middle section gets a tad draggy.
Think of Megamind as Dreamworks and his arch nemesis Metro Man as Disney
and I think this is a pretty clear vision of what the inside of Katzenberg's
head looks like.
Two
alien children were sent away from exploding planets simultaneously.
One landed in the home of indifferent millionaires, while the other crashed
inside a prison. Raised in those two cultures, it came easily for
super-strong Metro Man (voice of Brad Pitt) to be everyone's hero, while
super-smart, blue-skinned Megamind (Will Ferrell) learned to embrace his
position as an outsider and turned toward villainy. The two battled
again and again as the people of Metro City looked on, with Megamind never
once tasting victory. But that doesn't stop him: as the Metro
Man Museum is dedicated, Megamind returns to a familiar plan, abducting
the lovely reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) to lure Metro Man to his
hideout. The battle is joined and, inconceivably, Metro Man ends
up as a bleached skeleton in tights and Megamind and his alien cohort Minion
(David Cross) are triumphant. They sack Metro City, set up shop in
the Mayor's Mansion and... well.... that's about it. In victory,
Megamind has no purpose and is gripped with a mad plan to salvage some
of Metro Man's DNA and give his powers to a random citizen who can become
his new nemesis. But as fate would have it, he also gets caught up
in Roxanne's plan to stop him while disguised as mild-mannered museum curator
Bernard (Ben Stiller). Getting a taste of what life would be like
if people didn't fear and despise him gives Megamind second thoughts about
his evil plans. Just as well, because his formula has had a big impact
on Roxanne's creepy cameraman Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill)... and as the superpowered
Titan, heroism is the last thing on his mind.
Megamind
isn't as clever or funny as the best Dreamworks flicks (oddly, their real
gems like Monsters vs. Aliens and How
to Train Your Dragon seem to always be released in the spring rather
than during the peak movie seasons), and the period between the fall of
Megamind's first nemesis and the rise of his second gets a tad draggy.
And while it does pack in tons of references, they don't tend to really
resonate: yes, “Hal Stewart” combines the first and last names of
two different Green Lanterns and the mechanical body that carries Minion's
little fish body around is cribbed from the infamously bad 50's sci-fi
flick Robot Monster, but those things don't actually add or mean
anything in reference to the characters. But what Megamind
has going for it is an unusually strong (for an animated film) central
conflict. Megamind never really had a chance, dropped by spaceship
into a world so cruel it raised him as a prisoner just because his ship
had randomly fallen into one and ostracized by the kids at school because
of his appearance. He wants to strike back, to lash out, but his
heart's not really in it because he really does have the soul of a hero.
And while he'd always thought ill of the cocky Metro Man because his pampered
upbringing made it easy for him to choose heroism, it turns out that WAS
a choice: given the same powers, Titan shows Megamind what evil really
is, and forces him to make the same choice he made as an angry child again
from an adult's point of view. I have to say that while the movie
was just chugging along agreeably as it turned the corner into the third
act, I was really caught by surprise by just how much I cared about the
outcome. While the movie around it may not be top-shelf, the best
parts of Megamind are really iconic, and I can see this movie having
a big impact on kids who might see their own lives in the lead character's
predicament.
Some
of the power of the final reel comes from just what a tremendous creation
Titan is. Smarting himself from being marginalized and rejected by
Roxanne, he lashes out at the world from an entirely different perspective
than the brilliant Megamind. Titan is the personification of those
faceless kids we shake our heads at when we hear of cemeteries being vandalized,
old ladies mugged and Toys For Tots buckets robbed. He's angry, hateful
scum and he just wants to watch the whole world burn for his personal pain.
I know an animated character can't “act” per se, but the work of the animation
team that did Titan's facial features and expressions is first-rate:
I was actually scared of this guy, and the feeling that both the animation
and Jonah Hill's excellent voice work gives you that he'd actually murder
Roxanne or Megamind pumps up the suspense in the closing scenes to levels
one would never expect based on the opening hour.
Otherwise,
the performances and animation get the job done although they're not standout.
I think it's funny that Pitt seems to be doing his friend George Clooney
a bit as the arrogant superhero, and while Ferrell is fine as the voice
of Megamind, it's a shame Robert Downey Jr. passed on the role because
that could really have been something. The animation and 3D are fairly
zippy, with one remarkable image from the third act standing out:
I can't recall the last time I saw someone throw a building at someone
else, spire-first. Now THAT'S super strength!
Trailers
spoil a few too many of the movie's surprises, so viewers who catch up
with Megamind down the road might actually enjoy it more than the
ones seeing it on its initial theatrical run. But I can also see
this becoming a movie that becomes a perennial favorite because the good
stuff in it is really good, especially if it resonates with your personally.
In terms of superhero/villain satires, it falls somewhere between Pixar's
The Incredibles (still the gold standard) and the cute but overrated
Despicable Me. I'm sure Dreamworks
is somewhere vowing vengeance for that statement even as I type it... |
