Megamind

So DreamWorks Animation isn’t the worst at what they do but they aren’t the best. Obviously Pixar is the leader in their field. But there are companies that do way worse. DreamWorks is probably best known for doing “Shrek,” and most of those movies are terrible. However, they surprised me last year with a perfect movie, “How To Train Your Dragon.” That film was easily the best they have ever made, but because of poor marketing didn’t make a lot of noise. They also made another hit movie, “Kung Fu Panda” which I enjoyed as well. Now they have “Megamind,” which takes the same fundamental premise of “Shrek” and puts a more interesting spin on it.

“Megamind” is a superhero story told from the perspective of the villain. Like “Shrek” did for fairy tales this does for superheroes, that is to say, it reveals the complexity of the idea of good vs. evil. Megamind tries so hard to be good at first but can never match up to his rival, Metroman. So he decides, like any kid, if he can’t get attention for being good he’ll get it for being bad. But what he comes to understand is that once he destroys Metroman, and gets everything he ever wanted, there’s no point to being a villain anymore.

While not quite as good as “How To Train Your Dragon,” or the similarly set “The Incredibles,” I thought this was actually are really good story. This movie is great. But what keeps it from being perfect is that with a cast that includes Tina Fey and Will Ferrell I was expecting it to be really funny. There were a couple of jokes that blew me away, but for the most part there aren’t that many laughs in the film. That being said, I really enjoyed this movie and you probably will too. It’s clever and interesting and the story is wonderful. It really is a great film, just a little disappointing when it comes to the laughs. I’ll just say it’s a better movie than it is comedy and leave it at that.