The DreamWorks Animation team devotes its extraordinary attention to 3-D visual detail in Megamind – most commonly to the illustration of such mayhem as death rays vaporizing steel and whole buildings turning to rubble. It’s a lot of Sturm und Drang that quickly grows repetitive; I’d trade 90% of the action for a few more of those tight close-ups of blue-hued Megamind (voiced by Ferrell), his doleful eyes wide with a soul-sickness fit for Ingmar Bergman. Megamind is a self-professed supervillain, an alien who was orphaned young and crafted an identity in counterpoint to another foundling who fell to Metro City, USA, on the same day. Where Megamind is unnervingly smart but puny and unpopular, the buff, boffo Metro Man (voiced to perfection by Pitt) was born to lead. (In a sly goof, Metro Man literally walks on water.) The pair – supervillain and superhero – form a fine yin-and-yang, and their banter suggests a shared pleasure in the symbiotic relationship. But what’s a big baddie to do when his nemesis and prime motivator takes an extended vacation? Megamind gets existential, but only in blips, and while it is never anything less than vibrant and exceedingly clever, it is also a rather slight thing for such megasized proportions.
This article appears in November 5 • 2010.
