There is a list of adjectives that critics like to use to describe the slew of great new animated films, from The Incredibles to Wall-E, Up to Toy Story 3. These movies are smart, genuinely funny, enjoyable for kids and adults, thematically mature, and feature more original storytelling than most of today’s live action films.The latest in this cross-generational genre of consciously wacky animated features is Megamind, and, unfortunately, none of the above descriptions apply to it.
The movie, featuring voices by a crew of verifiable funny people — Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, and David Cross — is predictable, canned, not very funny, and often quite dull. Not that Megamind doesn’t have a satirical punch. The problem is knowing that winks alone aren’t enough to make adult themes resonate.
Like The Incredibles, Megamind takes as its launching point a spoof on the superhero genre. Megamind is a super-villain who finally defeats his heroic nemesis, Metro Man (Brad Pitt), but then realizes that it was the struggle between good and evil that gave meaning to his villainous existence. The film is largely a parody of the Superman storyline. It opens with the villain as an alien baby being placed in a space pod that will launch him from his dying planet to Earth. On his way, his pod nearly bumps into that of a second alien baby, Metro Man, who is also earth-bound. Metro Man’s pod ends up landing in an upper-class household, where he is pampered, coddled, and emotionally reinforced. Megamind’s pod bounces into a prison for the criminally insane. Nonetheless, the two space kids end up at the same school, where Metro Man delights his class with his superpowers — flying, strength, shooting laser beams from his eyes — while Megamind has to settle for using his other-worldly genius, usually creating machines that blow things up and create havoc. Negative reinforcement from school and peers teaches the confused young Megamind that he is a born villain.
The two war for years until one day Megamind finally succeeds in a battle, evaporating the super man with a ray gun fired from outer space. At first Megamind relishes in his conquest, but he is quickly bored with indulging in the spoils of war. He needs someone good to fight, otherwise he has no purpose. The evil genius creates a ray gun that will turn a regular person into a super hero, only it misfires, turning the dweeb-ish cameraman (Jonah Hill) of Metro Man’s former squeeze, TV journalist Roxanne (Tina Fey), into “Tighten.” One thing Megamind didn’t wager on, however, is that the lazy and self-absorbed cameraman turns out to be a villain, using his powers to pamper himself. Megamind is placed in a peculiar position: having to fight the villain he created, thus becoming a good guy himself. His virtuous scruples are overcome by his desire to impress Roxanne, with whom he has fallen in love.
Whew. Getting through all that plot, you can almost pinpoint where all the jokes fall in: humorous banter between Megamind and Roxanne; watching Tighten become a lazy bad guy. Also worth a grin, Metro Man is portrayed as glamorous and self-absorbed, a twist on the idea of the superhero as celebrity. Outside of these quips, which aren’t so much funny as they are clever, there’s not much humor to spread around in Megamind. Stripped of his body and facial gymnastics, Will Ferrell seems handcuffed in terms of inserting his brand of off-the-wall comedy. David Cross, playing Megamind’s sidekick, Minon, has no more to work with than the sidekick of an afternoon kid’s television cartoon. Jonah Hill’s character is mostly grating. And Tina Fey plays the straight woman.
Comparisons to The Incredibles abound, mostly because that movie worked where Megamind does not. The Incredibles’s concept was relationship first. The running subtext of that film, that society downplays the extraordinary, was just that, a subtext, whereas the comedy was fueled by the dynamic of family relationships, leavened by a verifiably good action plot. Megamind’s 3D action sequences dazzle, but both thematically and comedically, it is too explicit, too much of a one-to-one allegory. With little to mine outside of superhero cliché and familiar gags, the concept grows tired and spent well before the final super showdown.
