Megamind, Megalaughs

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2019)

Infinity War and Endgame, the two crown jewels of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have come and gone for a while now. This by no means signals the end of Superhero movies, but it does mark the end of the classic era of the cinematic universe. These two films, Infinity War especially, are special additions to the superhero genre that break out of the usual pitfalls and irritating parts of the genre. It got me thinking of other examples of superhero movies that break away from the superhero stigma and make a great experience on their own. There's the Dark Knight Trilogy, Logan, Spiderverse, and Mask of the Phantasm, but these are all serious takes. What about Deadpool? During the buildup of MCU's Phase 3, Deadpool came out as a tongue-in-cheek parody of modern superhero movie tropes. Sounds like a great concept! However, I feel it falls short in multiple different ways. Especially when you compare it to another superhero parody, Megamind.
The basic premise of the movie is that two alien babies crash land on Earth in a metropolis Metro City. They eventually become the Superman-esque Metro Man and the hyper intelligent Megamind. Lifelong rivals, Megamind aspires to take control of Metro City and Metro Man thwarts him each time. They continue the hero-villain schtick until Megamind overcomes all adversity and actually kills Metro Man, giving him full control of Metro City. With that as the basic premise, trouble ensues.
Megamind, like Deadpool, was a property made from the ground up to poke fun at and play with superhero tropes. I can't say anything on the Deadpool comics as I haven't read any of them, but the Deadpool movie and its sequel are more focused on making fun of superhero movies than just general superhero media. Megamind is the exact opposite, using general superhero tropes and cliches and playing around with them for comedic effect.
This film was made by Dreamworks and stars Will Ferrell who both have an awful track record of making movies with lackluster senses of humor. However, I feel the movie's strongest aspect is it's comedy. The writers did a good job making fun of the superhero genre. One of the highlights is when Megamind is going through the motions with Metro Man and local reporter/love interest, Roxanne Ritchi. Megamind has Roxanne strapped to a chair and attempts to frighten her with a bunch of typical supervillain things like buzz saws, crocodiles, and spiky drills. Roxanne laughs it off, calling Megamind "predictable" while he desperately tries to find a weapon that has an impact. The dialogue also has a good punch to it. All the characters have great personality and bounce off each other well. Megamind's bombastic megalomania, Roxanne's snarky sarcasm, Metro Man's comical goodness, it's all good stuff. While some of it does fall into some lazy comedy like having a character scream and letting that be a joke on its own, those moments are very few. I even found some of the more basic humor endearing, like how Megamind has a tendency to mispronounce certain words.
The humor and personality doesn't end at the writing, though. This is an animated movie and the filmmakers put the medium to good use. The animation reminds me of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs what with the lanky main character with wonderfully energetic animation. I love watching Megamind dance around the screen, it gives him and the film so much more personality. The same is true of the rest of the movie, especially the fight scenes (even if there are only two of them). The rest of the visual presentation is good too. The environments, though often drab due to the stereotypical cityscape, can occasionally surprise with some pretty looking shots. The character designs are all great and reflect their personalities well. The only real problem I have as far as visuals go is the way the eyes look. It's only noticeable in a handful of close-up shots, but the irises look weirdly flat and appear to move across the eye rather than looking like the whole eyeball is moving. That wouldn't be so bad but that mixed with how realistic the irises look make their movement a bit uncanny. But, hey, if that's my biggest complaint for a 3D animated movie that's a decade old, I'd say ya done good.

I don't want to go over the entire plot since it'll spoil some good laughs, but I will share some of my tiny grievances. Most of the story is cool, making fun of many superhero tropes and being generally funny. However, it does fall into using some movie cliches. Ones like The Liar Revealed, Dance Party Ending, or that cliche when someone turns on the TV or flips to a channel right at the beginning of something important. I couldn't find the TV Tropes page of that last one. Like I said, these are small problems I have with the movie that is otherwise creative and funny, but I thought I'd mention it for people who don't like seeing cliches that are either overused or make a movie more predictable.
My final topic is the music. I really like it. A lot of it is classic rock music that has a badass tone like "Bad to the Bone" and "Highway to Hell." I've always had a soft spot for movies that use pre-established music in an interesting way and this movies incorporates them really well. The original tracks are co-composed by industry legend Hans Zimmer and his occasional collaborator Lorne Balf. It's mostly okay orchestrated pieces but they have a big band version of Bad to the Bone that they use multiple times and it's really cool.
So yeah, those are my thoughts on Megamind. It has a few missteps and pitfalls but it succeeds much more often than not. As a superhero parody and comedy in general, I'd say give it a chance. Also, Tighten's upper lip.