Megamind

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 24th December, 2010 (India)
Time : 95 minutes
Director : Tom McGrath; Writer : Alan J Schoolcraft, Brent Simons; Music : Lorne Balfe, Hans Zimmer
Starring (voices of) : Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross

Megamind : I was destined to be a supervillain, and we were destined to be rivals! The die was cast! And so began an epic enduring lifelong career... and I LOVED IT!
[a gallery of newspaper articles appears, featuring Megamind and Metro Man's battles]
Our battles quickly got more elaborate. He would win some, I would ALMOST win others! He took the name: Metro Man, defender of Metro City. I decided to pick something a little more humble: Megamind, incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all villainy!


What a delightful, thought provoking movie ! This continues the trend of animated films having layers of depth that you’d scarcely credit such films with. I remember Incredibles having similar layers, with some elements which can appeal to the kids but enough dialogue in there to stimulate the adults


Megamind is constantly concocting evil plans which are equally constantly being thwarted by the dapper Metro Man who lives in Metro City and is soon going to have an entire museum dedicated to him by his adoring public. Most of Megamind’s plans are not about bloodshed or mayhem but involve the pretty reporter from a TV channel, Roxanne. Leading to such charming exchanges when she is kidnapped yet again, as “Can I get my miles on my kidnap loyalty card?”


Then, one day, as much to Megamind’s surprise as anyone elses, he actually manages to finish off Metro Man. The entire city, Roxanne and Megamind’s loyal assistant, Minion are stunned. He now takes over the entire city. And then slowly he gets bored…

Existential questions pop up. Can anything truly remain fun if there is never anyone who can stop you for anything ? How many times can you loot banks, terrorise people, wreck things before it ceases to excite. Can evil truly prosper if there is no good ? How can you continue to innovate, come with one fiendish evil plan after another when there is no constraint, force of good to stop you ?


He actually begins to miss his old pal, Metro Man ! He becomes sad, introverted. And then he has a brainwave…he will recreate a superhero, he will endow an ordinary person with Metro Man’s powers and then life will be truly fun again. At least that’s the theory…


The jokes fly thick and fast.
Megamind : (removing cloth bag from his captives head) Miss Ritchi… we meet again
Roxanne : Would it kill you to wash the bag ?
There is a sub-plot with the reporters nerdy cameraman, Titan, also having the hots for her. There is a assistant curator in the museum who also suddenly becomes an important character. There is Minion who cant understand whats happened to his boss as he’s still having fun plundering and pillaging. There are a couple of surprise twists at the end, very interesting ones which raise even deeper philosophical questions, none deeper than the eternal filmy question “Can the bad guy ever get the girl ?”

After a lifetime spent watching Amjad Khan, Pran & Amrish Puri (to name a few) fail miserably, it’s a point of view worth watching.

Simply delightful…