Dreamworks #21: Megamind

Megamind - 8.5/10

 

This was the movie that put Dreamworks on the map for me. I know that sounds odd considering what I’ve had to say about the many of the films leading up to this, but I hadn’t yet stopped to consider where these movies were coming from. There was a lot of award buzz going around that year though, and of course this one and How to Train Your Dragon were both in there. There was talk about how Kung Fu Panda had been up for several the year before, and it was at that moment I actually stopped to realize, “Holy crap! These movies are all being made by the same people!” And Monsters vs. Aliens was pretty good too.

I was a bit turned off of Disney at the time due to their string of perceived sell-outs (I had yet to actually watch any of them), and it was with the release of Megamind that I began to realize that just about everything Dreamworks touched was gold. That has held true for the most part to the present day, though I haven’t had a chance to see their latest offerings yet.

This movie is basically Shrek for comic books. That is to say, it plays with superhero comic conventions in much the same way Shrek played with fairy tale conventions: affectionate parody, lampshading of overused plot devices, and in the end turning most of the established conventions on their heads. It really would be fairer to compare this film to Shrek 2, since like that film the writing was really tight and the characters very well-defined and engaging. 

Will Farrell gives a surprisingly good performance as Megamind. I suppose it’s not too surprising, as he tends to be at his best when not playing Will Farrell (that is, being an arrogant dumbass or screaming at his mom for meatloaf). The story of Megamind and his rival Metro Man is an obvious parody of the Superman origin, but the filmmakers decided to take what could have just been a throwaway joke and actually go a little deeper with it. A major theme of the movie is how much of your life is forced on you by circumstances beyond your control, and how much of it you choose for yourself.

Megamind is a supervillain, but not because he’s inherently evil. He becomes a villain because he feels that is the role that society has selected for him, and so he just rolls with it. If he can’t be accepted for anything else he wants, he may as well want the one thing he’s “accepted” for. It’s only much later that we find Metro Man became a hero for much the same reason, and their constant battles between good and evil were mostly a show for everyone but themselves.  

Again, I really like this because it was first presented as a joke – quite skillfully, I might add. The opening sequence in which heroine Roxanne Ritchie is kidnapped and threatened to lure out Metro Man is very funny, due mainly to the implications from all three of them that this is sort of a regular thing that they do. Stuffed right in with the good vs. evil banter are lines such as “Can someone stamp my frequent kidnapping card?” and “Same time next Thursday?”. 

The bulk of the story is centered around the answer to the question, “What would happen if the bad guy won?” As it turns out, not much. We learn that Megamind never really expected to win and so never planned that far. This again leads to some very funny moments. And while he does enjoy his victory for a short time, he eventually grows bored and has something of an existential crisis. After all, he was never really in it for the evil, but rather for something to do that would validate his existence.

He creates a new hero to fight him – a plan that goes predictably wrong. The man he chooses is not exactly hero material. Again, something that was played for laughs early on comes back with a much more serious twist later on. Hal, or “Titan”, is a bona fide sociopath (a very realistic portrayal of one, I must say), but before he was given power he wasn’t really anything more than an awkward, kind of creepy guy. He seemed like a joke character so having him come back to play a legitimately dangerous villain was something of a surprise, and a welcome one. I love surprises that make sense. 

The climax is quite uplifting, since even when he came to save the city Megamind was so ingrained in the mindset that he was supposed to be the bad guy, he didn’t feel like he deserved the credit for doing it. In a move reminiscent of Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, it is Roxanne who convinces him he’s worth more than he thinks he is. 

There’s a really great soundtrack in this as well. Megamind is a big classic rock fan, so we get a lot of AC/DC and Guns n Roses and stuff. I approve. The true strength of this movie though is, like I said, their ability to make fun of so many comic book conventions so effectively and yet still manage to make a movie that’s more than just a big joke. Another win for SKG.