Megamind Review

Rocketed to earth as a baby, evil blue genius Megamind (Will Ferrell) plots the destruction of his rival, the superhero Metro Man (Brad Pitt) and plans to take over Metro City (mispronounced by our antihero in such a way that it rhymes with ‘monstrosity’). He is aided and abetted by Minion (David Cross), a fish in control of a robotic gorilla body. When Megamind accidently defeats Metro Man, he is free to take over the city, but he quickly becomes bored with success and goes about creating a new hero to fight. Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) serves a romantic interest/serial kidnap victim.

Following shortly behind the similarly themed Despicable Me, Megamind takes the established beats and tropes of the superhero movie and skews them, much in the same way The Incredibles did six years ago. Indeed, the influence of that film hangs around Megamind like a bad smell – the true villain of the piece is almost indistinguishable from The Incredibles’ Syndrome and the film asks similar questions of its protagonist: when you have achieved the goals you set out to accomplish in life, what do you do next?

Megamind treads far from fresh territory then, but offers a healthy dose of humour to compensate. After taking a few scenes to hit its stride, Megamind offers a choice selection of tasty Will Ferrell comedy nuggets. His brand of improvisational, over-the-top, zany humour is tailored perfectly to the character of an egocentric super villain. David Cross (perhaps best known for his excellent turn as analyst/therapist – ‘or “analrapist”, if you will’, Dr Tobias Funke in superlative sitcom Arrested Development) is also given plenty of time to shine and the banter between he and Ferrell is grand. Pitt is predictably well-cast in his role as the annoyingly perfect Metro Man.

There is perhaps an argument that Ferrell is at his most consistently amusing when aiming his comedic crosshairs at a slightly younger audience (see also: Elf). In his more adult comedies, Ferrell seems to irritate as many as he amuses, but in Megamind you get a sense of his true, crowd-pleasing potential. That’s not to say I’d want to see him doing nothing but family comedies from now on; far from it. Megamind is simply evidence that the man has such an acute grasp of the funny bone, he could easily be turning out inferior fare in his sleep.

Credit is surely due then for Megamind, a film that is as likely to appeal to mum, dad and the sprogs as it is to the unruly fifteen year olds at the back of the cinema, which is no mean feat. A very decent, if not overly original comedy that very few should take against.