By It feels like every other month that DreamWorks pumps out another uninspired CG animated blandfest. With few exceptions, the films are as far from being interesting or creative as physically possible, filled with smirking animals and lazy pop culture references. Always, there is a dance scene set to a pop or classic rock song. When a trailer for a DreamWorks CG film plays, I have no thoughts at all. Nothing appeals to me or infuriates me, all I see is the safest and most middling committee-created product possible. All I see are more cheap plastic Happy Meal toys filling landfills.
Megamind arrives. All signs point to it being nothing but a half-assed combination of The Incredibles and Despicable Me. Yet, defying all expectations, laughing in the face of all gods to ever be worshipped, perhaps bending the rules of reality itself, it’s… not terrible.
It feels like every other month that DreamWorks pumps out another uninspired CG animated blandfest. With few exceptions, the films are as far from being interesting or creative as physically possible, filled with smirking animals and lazy pop culture references. Always, there is a dance scene set to a pop or classic rock song. When a trailer for a DreamWorks CG film plays, I have no thoughts at all. Nothing appeals to me or infuriates me, all I see is the safest and most middling committee-created product possible. All I see are more cheap plastic Happy Meal toys filling landfills.
Megamind arrives. All signs point to it being nothing but a half-assed combination of The Incredibles and Despicable Me. Yet, defying all expectations, laughing in the face of all gods to ever be worshipped, perhaps bending the rules of reality itself, it's… not terrible.{{page_break}}What makes Megamind proudly rise above awfulness is a twist that is has unfortunately been spoiled a bit by the most recent publicity materials: this is actually not a film about a quirky villain and hero battling, but instead an exploration of what occurs after the villain has won. Surprisingly, a somewhat original story is being told here. I was entertained and not upset to be there. Parents will not be desperately clawing for the exit, as they surely are for something like Marmaduke.
So yes, this film endeared itself to me a bit by not being a completely worthless, hackneyed waste of time. The storytelling is sound and the writing is relatively sharp. However, this does not change the fact that it is butt-ugly. Seriously why must every CG film aimed at children look so awful? They are created with the most sophisticated animation technology in existence, but it's completely wasted on these homogenized character designs.
Every human character has the same stupid bright, shiny bug-eyes and there is never anything even remotely interesting to look at. Even films that clearly have a bit more effort put into making the design distinctive (such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) fall prey to this. Characters that may have once been miracles of cartooning on paper have had their edges rounded out and stuffed animal eyes plastered on, resulting in the same old plastic-looking CG puppets.
Making things all the more egregious, most of these films feature gorgeous 2D animation sequences during the credits. My point here is not that 2D animation is inherently superior to 3D animation (even though it is), it's that I wish the CG films coming out featured more fetching design. Why can't there be CG movie that looks as stylish as Samurai Jack or Adventure Time?
In any case, Megamind managed to provide decent enough entertainment in spite of its ugliness. This isn't to say it's very good, just noteworthy in that it isn't too bad either. I didn't laugh very often and I cared very little about what happened to the characters, but I wasn't groaning or checking my watch. It even ends with a damn dance sequence set to a pop song, but perhaps I was too busy focusing on the obvious homoerotic subtext to mind.
6.25 – Okay. 6s are just okay. These movies usually have many flaws, didn’t try to do anything special, or were poorly executed. Some will still love 6s, but most prefer to just rent them. Watch more trailers and read more reviews before you decide.
Megamind isn't nearly good enough to stand up against the best Pixar has to offer, but at least it's reasonably sharp and free of sassy talking animals.
