directed Tom McGrath
starring Will Farrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt
I just saw Megamind for the first time. Unlike Despicable Me, which was brought to me by my elementary age cousins, this animated supervillian-centric tale was suggested by three of my college age friends. Who I almost never see in person. Naturally, we'd spend our time watching children's movies. You wish you were this cool.
There's a reason this film made top priority for us - it's really good. I liked it a great deal more than Despicable Me, or many other movies marketed at the sub-13 sector of society.
Spoilers ahead.
In the spirit of brevity, I'm going to make a list of why I was pleasantly surprised by this movie:
1) Originality In a genre where almost every spoof has already been spoofed itself, this movie twisted in unpredictable ways from the beginning and didn't stop. The main antagonist, featured heavily in the advertising and voiced by Brad Pitt, was dead at the end of the film's opening battle. (Well, dead enough for our purposes.) The movie then moved to a contemplation of a villain's life post-world takeover. What happens next? He falls for the girl and starts inching toward the good side, training up a new hero - it seems like we're veering for a showdown where he'll realize that he doesn't really want to fight anymore. Unless the new hero decides to go evil himself - then, suddenly, this battle is Megamind's heroic moment itself, not the lead-up to one. Predictably, the first hero turns up not-so-dead - but surprisingly, his refusal to assist the protagonist holds firm, even when it seems otherwise. Each new development doesn't just play out - it arrives ahead of schedule and changes the game. I never set back and put my viewing-mode on autopilot. This is how light, entertaining movies should be made.
2) Tina Fey and her awesome character. Initially lost between the two boys in the marketing, it became clear that this stereotypical romantic character was going to be much more involved than your average Team Chick. In addition to delivering the sarcastic comebacks featured in the trailer, this reporter was involved, self-assured, informed, and displayed plenty of agency. She felt like an actual character, not the Required Strong(ish) But Mostly Pretty Female Role Model required in PG-rated movies.
3) Oops That about sums it up. I'll have to work on avoiding this brevity thing in the future.
This is not the standard movie I'll be reviewing, but it provided a nice warm-up. In the meantime, bear with me as I figure out the format of these reviews.
Preview of upcoming attractions: Never Let Me Go, Giant, Vertigo, Notorious
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