Another cartoon. How about a "real" movie?

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2010)

This movie is just OK--but my general dissatisfaction has little to do with the plot or characters--but more on that in the last paragraph.
The plot is about two babies from a planet that develops creatures with strength and powers beyond that of humans. Two of these creatures are jettisoned from the planet, and by pure random chance of where their spacecrafts land on earth, the Pitt character (Metro-Man) ends up in the home of a loving family, and the Ferrell character (Megamind) ends up in a prison for the mentally insane. This charts their future course in predictable ways--Metro Man becomes the hero of Metro City, while Megamind, after release from prison--the terms of the release and his upbringing at the "S Chool" (as humorously pronounced by Ferrell)--are never fully explained.
Anyway, so it's made clear early on that Megamind isn't truly evil but is in it for the sport of it, while Metroman is a bit more full of himself as the hero than than, say, mild-mannered Clark Kent. As part of the plot a third character joins the mix as another super-human hero after a major battle between Megamind and Metroman. This adds a bit of complexity to a story that really has no business being complex--cartoon or not. It also adds dead time to the movie, as this new character isn't really very interesting. Anyway, in the romantic mix for all these characters is Tina Fey, who is the funniest part of the movie--she is a plus for any movie but as explained below--this movie's mediocrity has little to do with the talent.
So without spoiling anything, we have an ending meant to satisfy us and bring closure to the characters. But this movie, and increasingly *every* animated movie lately, does not satisfy me--and it's not the plot or characters that fall short. It's that I'm tired of CGI animation. I don't care how "good" the quality is, how "realistic" it is--it's not real and frankly it's creepy. If I'm going to see a cartoon I'd prefer a real, hand-drawn cartoon. This CGI, in my opinion, is just wrong. It's too 'real' to be a cartoon but so completely unreal that I never get a true feeling for the characters--no matter how well-voiced or well-written they are. In the early days "Toy Story" was popular but I think the popularity had more to do with the novelty of the Pixar animation--the 'wow' factor. It's ho-hum now--even though the resolution, shading, texture, etc has improved. Ironically the more all of that technology improves the creepier these movies get. I could go on and on about how the newer Star Wars "movies" with Jar-Jar, et al., were soul-less bores, but I'll close here--and hope that those who agree will let their feelings be known to Hollywood. I'll take a real, filmed movie any time over this animation.