Nice little subversion of superhero tropes

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2019)

Comic books have sometimes hypothesized what would happen if a supervillain actually won against their heroic nemesis. Often these stories are of rather dark variety. Not so much here, keeping in mind that this is still a Dreamworks film aimed primarily at children.
Still, the protagonist of the film is a supervillain and he does win, defeating his archrival, Metro Man, through sheer stroke of luck. And he takes over the city. And rules over it with an iron fist. And as you can imagine, he ends up being not quite as content with it as he might have imagined. So much so that he starts to yearn for the "bad old days".
The concept works, in my opinion. Will Ferrell has a lot of comedic chops and in his hands Megamind can be diabolically scheming, sympathetic, pathetic and even kind of a lovable goof. I also really like Minion, his main enforcer. Clever design, good voice acting from David Cross and some of the best lines. Tina Fey's Roxanne Ritchie (gotta love that comic book alliteration) is perhaps a bit too by the book damsel in distress, but she has a personality despite that, and could have been a lot worse.
The thing that rubbed me the wrong way is the character of Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill), initially a co-worker of Roxanne's. I get that he was supposed to come across as sleazy and to practically scream the concept of bad touch. I just think they took it a tad too far. This was an uncomfortable character in all the wrong ways and I think they could have gotten the character concept across without making the audience collectively pull their collars.
Then again, keeping in mind how many women still get needlessly harassed by men who just don't seem to get the concept of "No!", perhaps it's a good thing that the younger generation has such a bad example as Hal.
Megamind is a refreshing take on the superhero genre. Definitely worth a watch for all wanting another take on the usual clichés.