Rating: B-
Dir: Tom McGrath
Star: [voice] Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross
The titular evil genius (Ferrell) finally manages to obliterate his nemesis, the heroic Metro Man, and take control of Metro City, achieving his life-long goal. But having done so, what then, now that his major public opponent is local TV news anchor Roxanne Ritchie (Fey), who isn’t exactly much of a – any, to be honest – threat to Megamind. The solution is simple: using a DNA sample from Metro Man, re-create his superhero attributes and inject them into a suitable candidate, to create a worthy opponent for Megamind to battle. Unfortunately, the serum is instead injected into Roxanne’s cameraman (Hill), who is not quite as heroically-inclined. He’ll certainly be the foe Megamind wants, however.
This is more than slightly reminiscent of Despicable Me, but works slightly better, thanks to a more credible transition from villain to hero. It also caters better to an adult audience than both Me and McGrath’s previous efforts in the Madagascar movies. Of course, it does still tread a fairly well-worn path as well as storytelling goes, and if you can’t predict the way things will unfold, and aren’t expecting the climactic ‘surprise’, then you are too young to be operating a computer unaided. Still, this doesn’t matter too much, with Ferrell nicely restrained as Megamind, mispronouncing words with cheerful abandon and Fey a relatively straight foil. Add in some impressive visuals, and while this falls short of entering any Hall of Animated Fame, it passes the time more than adequately.