Megamind

Megamind, in theatres November 5th is Dreamworks' answer to Despicable Me.  Will Ferrell  voices the titular likable villain and Brad Pitt is Metro Man, the Superman-esque guardian of Meto City (or Metrocity, rhymes with atrocity) according to Megamind's charmingly unique diction.

Megamind and Metro Man have both grown up on Earth as rivals, having been sent away from dying world's at the same time.  Things are pretty predictable as Megamind comes up with some devious plot to kidnap the Lois Lane type - Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) or undermine his nemesis in some other way and Metro Man saves the day with ease.  David Cross is Megamind's faithful fishbowl minion, Jonah Hill is more or less himself in the form of Hal, the lovestruck camera man boy, and Ben Stiller, who executive produces makes a cameo as Bernard, the librarian.

It's looking to be another day of trickery and Roxanne Ritchi rescuing for the two rivals until it appears that Megamind has inexplicably and unexpectedly succeeded in eliminating Metro Man from the picture.  To say more would be to ruin some of this film's fun surprises.

In some ways, this film has a lot in common with Despicable Me.  The villain is the likable star of the show, with possible redemption on the plate.  Make no mistake, however, this is it's own film in every way, satirizing the super hero / super villain genre in a rollicking funny adventure set to 80's rock.  When I first saw the casting choice of Ferrell, I was dubious.  When Will Ferrel is Will Ferrel, he is immature in a way that I don't often find funny in the least.  Thankfully, here, he is 100% Megamind, eccentric alien genius villain who occasionally has bouts of melonkalee.  Brad Pitt exudes cheesy all American hero from outer space, Tina Fey plays the female reporter in distress-but-not-really role perfectly and Jonah Hill is Jonah Hill.

Thanks to some very selective trailers (though there are some new ones surfacing that you should avoid at all costs) there are plenty of clever twists.  Not so much unforeseeable as just unexpected due to the expectations built up from what little Dreamworks has said about the movie up until now.  Even having known about some of them before hand, I still found plenty to enjoy here.

While no one has yet come close to touching Pixar, in my opinion, it is gratifying to see animated films worth seeing come out of other studios lately.  See it in 3D if you can - it adds to the fun.

***** (5/5 stars)