I watched Megamind tonight, which was a pretty good movie. There aren’t enough movies that focus on a supervillain and THEIR struggles.

First off, the animation and expression on the Megamind character was the best I’ve seen in CG. When I first saw the previews for it, the subtleties of the facial expressions on him and his movements really caught my eye. I didn’t know who created the film, but there’s a company that I’ve noticed has a very good knack for expressive characters: Dreamworks. Somehow, I just recognized their style. I first noticed this in their 2D film, The Road To El Dorado. I simply LOVED the expressions on the main characters’ faces in that movie. Megamind’s expressions are very reminiscent of the ones in The Road To El Dorado. The other characters seem standard for a 3D movie, which makes me suspect they had a separate team specifically for Megamind. He has SO much energy! But on top of that, his sad expressions felt so real. All his movements felt real.

So, the plot. In Megamind, his and Metro Man’s origins are very similar to Superman’s origins. Sent to Earth on space ships from doomed planets, except theirs seemed to be getting pulled into a wormhole. They’re also from separate planets, hence the different appearances. Metro Man landed right in the living room of a rich couple, while Megamind landed in the court yard of “Metro City Prison For The Criminally Gifted”. Why he stayed in prison from that point on, I have no idea. We’ll suspend our disbelief for a while on that.

Hal, the camera man, has some funny shirts. The first one he’s shown wearing is “404 REQUEST NOT FOUND”. When he was later wearing a “GAME OVER” shirt, it was an appropriate shirt. We later see “GAME OVER” on his TV screen at another very appropriate time. Nice subtleties. He also has a “BITE ME” shirt in another scene, with teeth below the words.

I’m not a big Will Ferrell fan, but he fit well into this movie. My issue with Will is that his voice isn’t very strong. It doesn’t sound like he means what he’s saying. With Megamind, that not-so-strong voice actually makes the villain feel down-to-earth and more real. He’s trying to be evil, but deep down, he’s just seeking acceptance.

What also gives this a refreshing spin is that the villain actually defeats the hero! I wasn’t sure if it would be too much of a spoiler, but it does happen early enough in the movie, and the real focus of the plot is what happens afterward. Megamind doesn’t know what to do next. He has Metrocity in his control, but then what? He and Metro Man had a great hero-villain relationship, and he misses that. He has all these cool gadgets and a stockpile of schemes, but nobody to challenge him. I need to build something like that flying motorcycle-like thing in my comic, by the way.

The most to-the-point review of this movie would be this: “…WITH STYLE!”