Rumours of the death of this blog area greatly exaggerated - the spirit was willing on Tuesday but the technology was, unfortunately, weak. Even today you're only getting a quickie before I head into town to sell sparkly stuff around10 hours after I stopped selling it last night, but alas, such is life. More will hopefully be forthcoming next week, when I'm not busy trying to neck as much caffeine as I can before my hands grow too shaky to hold my pliers.
...Anyway, Ant-Man. Mr. B asked what film I wanted to watch yesterday, I said something undemanding and this is what he threw at me.
But ants, I said, I don't like ants, especially not the winged ones.
Superhero movies turned you into a fan of weapons magnates, said Mr. B, So why not winged ants?
Because, I said, Multiple Robert Downey Juniors have never flown into my face and got stuck in my hair.
Although, I didn't say, I do still live in hope.
Seriously, though, I've found myself burning out a little bit on Marvel Movies lately. The trailer for Captain America 3: The Civil War hasn't helped any, ludicrously portentous as it is; it's not that it necessarily looks bad (although it kind of does), it just doesn't look as though it'll be any fun whatsoever.
I like fun, especially in my superhero flicks, and when Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish abandoned Ant-Man partway through development I figured that that was when the fun would end. Reviews were mixed, and I didn't want to waste my hard-earned cash on something I wasn't going to enjoy. Friends, though, were largely positive about it, and when you're trying not to waste valuable braincells in the narrow gap between the professional job and the semi-pro one, you take what you can get.
What I got, in the end, was a damned good time. Marvel haven't come out with anything this lighthearted since the original Iron Man, and so Ant Man, with its likeable characters and marked lack of people being imperilled by the tens of thousands, felt like a breath of fresh air. Oh, and as well as being a superhero movie? It's also the cutest heist flick I've seen in, hm, about a decade, with my only real criticisms relating to the heavy product placement and some slightly implausible kid-in-danger stuff in the third act.
All in all, though? Ant-Man is a fantastic time. Highly recommended, and not just because the ants were kind of adorable (even the winged ones).
Friday, November 27, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
I like watching films on Friday mornings. The weekend beckons temptingly without me having been worn down by the afternoon grind, which means that I can afford to look at the sort of thing that allows me to engage my brain rather than simply soothing it.
Honestly, though, I Heart Huckabees is a joy any time, anywhere. I first saw it shortly after its release and I was blown away by its sheer joyous weirdness - here was a film that was both intelligent and absurd, a thoughtful, good-hearted, good-looking piece that posed a bunch of interesting questions and managed to provide a satisfying conclusion whilst leaving me with plenty to mull over in the years that followed.
The film begins by introducing one Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an idealistic young environmentalist troubled by the kind of life questions that can keep you awake half the night if you let them - is existence truly meaningless, or is there some kind of bigger picture that he simply isn't seeing. He has found, we learn, a mysterious business card in his jacket pocket, one which has led him to the office of existentialist detectives Vivian and Bernard Jaffey (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman respectively). By tracking every detail of his life, they claim that they will eventually be able to conclusively tell him what everything is all about.
Most of Albert's concerns, it turns out, centre around his cause and his job security, as Brad Stand (Jude Law) tries to force him out of his role as leader of the Open Spaces coalition. Brad works for Huckabees, a Walmart-esque corporation with about as much concern for the environment as you'd think. He's dating the beautiful, perky Dawn (Naomi Watts), the face of the company and the star of some truly iconic adverts. Before long, Brad is also trying the Jaffeys' unique brand of existentialist therapy. Meanwhile, Albert runs into French nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), who offers him an entirely new perspective on life's trials and tribulations.
It's all done with a light, deft touch and a certain playful faith in humanity - the cast are mostly excellent, with Schwartzman as implausibly adorable as ever. Naomi Watts, meanwhile, hits just the right note of barely-concealed desperation as a woman in the throes of realising that her entire role in life is to be pretty. The sole sour note comes in the form of Jude Law, who hams it up just a little too much as antagonist Brad. This is the sort of movie where performances require a certain level of pantomime, but Law turns it up to eleven and lands up making Brad slappable in all the wrong ways. This is only one small gripe, however, about a film that makes me feel better about the world in general and my place within it in particular.
Note: The above would probably be a decent point to stop, but before I do I just need to slip in a quickie mention for Jon Brion's genuinely brilliant soundtrack, a thoughtful but mischievous affair. It's worth taking a listen even after you've viewed the movie, because this is where you get the full-length songs, whose lyrics summarise the subject matter more wittily and concisely than I could ever dream of.
Honestly, though, I Heart Huckabees is a joy any time, anywhere. I first saw it shortly after its release and I was blown away by its sheer joyous weirdness - here was a film that was both intelligent and absurd, a thoughtful, good-hearted, good-looking piece that posed a bunch of interesting questions and managed to provide a satisfying conclusion whilst leaving me with plenty to mull over in the years that followed.
The film begins by introducing one Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an idealistic young environmentalist troubled by the kind of life questions that can keep you awake half the night if you let them - is existence truly meaningless, or is there some kind of bigger picture that he simply isn't seeing. He has found, we learn, a mysterious business card in his jacket pocket, one which has led him to the office of existentialist detectives Vivian and Bernard Jaffey (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman respectively). By tracking every detail of his life, they claim that they will eventually be able to conclusively tell him what everything is all about.
Most of Albert's concerns, it turns out, centre around his cause and his job security, as Brad Stand (Jude Law) tries to force him out of his role as leader of the Open Spaces coalition. Brad works for Huckabees, a Walmart-esque corporation with about as much concern for the environment as you'd think. He's dating the beautiful, perky Dawn (Naomi Watts), the face of the company and the star of some truly iconic adverts. Before long, Brad is also trying the Jaffeys' unique brand of existentialist therapy. Meanwhile, Albert runs into French nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), who offers him an entirely new perspective on life's trials and tribulations.
It's all done with a light, deft touch and a certain playful faith in humanity - the cast are mostly excellent, with Schwartzman as implausibly adorable as ever. Naomi Watts, meanwhile, hits just the right note of barely-concealed desperation as a woman in the throes of realising that her entire role in life is to be pretty. The sole sour note comes in the form of Jude Law, who hams it up just a little too much as antagonist Brad. This is the sort of movie where performances require a certain level of pantomime, but Law turns it up to eleven and lands up making Brad slappable in all the wrong ways. This is only one small gripe, however, about a film that makes me feel better about the world in general and my place within it in particular.
Note: The above would probably be a decent point to stop, but before I do I just need to slip in a quickie mention for Jon Brion's genuinely brilliant soundtrack, a thoughtful but mischievous affair. It's worth taking a listen even after you've viewed the movie, because this is where you get the full-length songs, whose lyrics summarise the subject matter more wittily and concisely than I could ever dream of.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Titan A.E. (2000)
I've been wanting to see Don Bluth's Titan A.E. since its release over fifteen years ago, but somehow, I never got around to it. Life kept on getting in the way, and then eventually cartoons became less of a lifestyle and more of an occasional indulgence. I'd turn the TV on during holiday periods every now and again, though, and find I'd just missed it, and the frustration was hard to shake.
At the time, it seemed pretty revolutionary, mixing state-of-the-art computer animation with traditional hand-drawn characters, in a story which owed more to Star Wars than the western tradition of female-oriented full-length animated features. I wasn't quite so knowledgeable then as I am now, though, so while Don Bluth's name meant something to me I didn't really notice Matt Damon voicing Cale, the lead, or (more interestingly) Joss Whedon's screenplay credit.
Y'know when I said the story owed a lot to Star Wars? Yeah, fifteen years on I'd say that's probably all you need to know, plotwise. There's a sassy blond orphan who holds the key to humanity's survival; he has an older mentor and a beautiful love interest (both human) plus a supporting cast of wacky alien sidekicks, and they're fighting an implacable and largely faceless interplanetary menace. These last are the Drej, shimmery blue things that look a little like the more predatory of the bugs from Starship Troopers, although they're more into shooting than recreational disembowelment. It's a simple enough tale and it isn't badly told - Whedon hasn't quite hit his stride yet, but the dialogue does occasionally fizz and crackle like it does in his better work.
So, why was I so disappointed?
I'd love to say it was because Akima, the love interest, was drawn Asian but voiced by Drew Barrymore. Certainly, that did set my teeth on edge.
Truth is, though? Titan A.E. is just flat-out ugly. Ugly can be good sometimes - it worked a treat for Super, for instance - but if I'm watching an animated fantasy I want it to look amazing. Look, these things are aimed at kids (or in this case, worse, teenage boys); if there's a good script it's a bonus but I'd be an idiot if I wanted the writing to be the main attraction.
I've seen the traditional/CGI combination work nicely in the past - I loved Brad Bird's The Iron Giant even if I'm in no hurry to return to it - but then, that film used the neat trick of drawing on top of the CGI to keep things looking relatively harmonious. In any given frame of Titan A.E, the various elements look to have been taken from completely different movies, creating a cognitive dissonance that was drastic enough to make me feel physically queasy. Again, in a different movie, this might have worked, but I can't help thinking I'd have found this one a much easier watch if they'd just decided on one style and kept to it. Certain scenes are impressive - I loved the cat-and-mouse chase through the ice crystals surrounding a ringed planet - but the minute the characters appear on screen it all starts looking like something from the late 70s again. I've never much liked the way Bluth and his team draw faces, and his alien designs aren't so much grotesque as painfully biologically implausible.
Bluntly put, the ugliness was a distraction that took me away from what was probably a fairly reasonable little space opera. Unlikely, I know, but here's hoping that at some point somebody tries for a live-action re-make, preferably with Whedon scripting again.
At the time, it seemed pretty revolutionary, mixing state-of-the-art computer animation with traditional hand-drawn characters, in a story which owed more to Star Wars than the western tradition of female-oriented full-length animated features. I wasn't quite so knowledgeable then as I am now, though, so while Don Bluth's name meant something to me I didn't really notice Matt Damon voicing Cale, the lead, or (more interestingly) Joss Whedon's screenplay credit.
Y'know when I said the story owed a lot to Star Wars? Yeah, fifteen years on I'd say that's probably all you need to know, plotwise. There's a sassy blond orphan who holds the key to humanity's survival; he has an older mentor and a beautiful love interest (both human) plus a supporting cast of wacky alien sidekicks, and they're fighting an implacable and largely faceless interplanetary menace. These last are the Drej, shimmery blue things that look a little like the more predatory of the bugs from Starship Troopers, although they're more into shooting than recreational disembowelment. It's a simple enough tale and it isn't badly told - Whedon hasn't quite hit his stride yet, but the dialogue does occasionally fizz and crackle like it does in his better work.
So, why was I so disappointed?
I'd love to say it was because Akima, the love interest, was drawn Asian but voiced by Drew Barrymore. Certainly, that did set my teeth on edge.
Truth is, though? Titan A.E. is just flat-out ugly. Ugly can be good sometimes - it worked a treat for Super, for instance - but if I'm watching an animated fantasy I want it to look amazing. Look, these things are aimed at kids (or in this case, worse, teenage boys); if there's a good script it's a bonus but I'd be an idiot if I wanted the writing to be the main attraction.
I've seen the traditional/CGI combination work nicely in the past - I loved Brad Bird's The Iron Giant even if I'm in no hurry to return to it - but then, that film used the neat trick of drawing on top of the CGI to keep things looking relatively harmonious. In any given frame of Titan A.E, the various elements look to have been taken from completely different movies, creating a cognitive dissonance that was drastic enough to make me feel physically queasy. Again, in a different movie, this might have worked, but I can't help thinking I'd have found this one a much easier watch if they'd just decided on one style and kept to it. Certain scenes are impressive - I loved the cat-and-mouse chase through the ice crystals surrounding a ringed planet - but the minute the characters appear on screen it all starts looking like something from the late 70s again. I've never much liked the way Bluth and his team draw faces, and his alien designs aren't so much grotesque as painfully biologically implausible.
Bluntly put, the ugliness was a distraction that took me away from what was probably a fairly reasonable little space opera. Unlikely, I know, but here's hoping that at some point somebody tries for a live-action re-make, preferably with Whedon scripting again.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Funny Bones (1995)
Apparently, Peter Chelsom's Funny Bones is meant to be a comedy. I only found this out two minutes ago when I brought up its details on the IMDB and saw the poster for it, complete with the tagline A zany look at two comedians who'll do anything for a laugh. This wasn't what I signed on for when I decided to watch it yesterday, and for the most part, it wasn't what I got. It's a film about comedians, after all, and why comedy itself might be funny, once you look a little closer, comedians often aren't.
Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) isn't funny no matter how you look at him - at least, that's what we're told. We only see a couple of snippets of his routine as he bombs on his first big Vegas night, and while I really enjoyed the dark desperation of it, the audience are less impressed and it's up to his legendary father George (Jerry Lewis) to save the day. Consumed by self-disgust, Tommy flees the city and the country, flying back to the English seaside resort of Blackpool where he spent the first six halcyon years of his life. Here, he hopes to find material he can buy so that he can finally make it big. Instead, however, he encounters the transcendently funny Jack Parker (Lee Evans). Parker and his family are something of an enigma, and in trying to find out what makes them tick, Tommy lands up getting a lot more than he bargained for.
I liked this one, really I did. Sure, it's tonally consistent - maybe Chelsom really was trying to make a comedy rather than a dark drama about clowns - but there's a certain gloom and lyricism about it that really appealed. Maybe it's Blackpool, a town I love with all my heart but also one which might just possibly be the saddest place on earth, using sleaze and sequins to cover some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. Once, Blackpool could attract the likes of Sinatra; these days, it's a living graveyard for the sort of variety acts that have no place in modern society. It's a fitting setting for a film that dips the tip of a toe into surrealism, with one really cute chase sequence set in the workings of the fairground ghost train.
Performances vary from good to great, with Platt and Lewis solid but Evans and Leslie Caron (as his mother, Katie) positively luminous. I've never been a huge fan of Lee Evans' standup, but here he displays a complexity and sincerity that put a lot of more experienced actors to shame. The cinematography is beautifully queasy, too, with characters often filmed on the slant to emphasise their fundamental oddness.
With all that said? It's still a mess, unfortunately. There's a few too many plot threads with only nominal relevance to the central story, and even the subplot that opens the movie could, I think, have been lost to create a tidier, more elegant piece. My other gripe would be a thematic one, with the film's insistence that clowning is the funniest form of comedy. While I really do admire clever physical comedy, it's not something that makes me laugh out loud, and it all just felt a little too close to anti-intellectualism for my personal taste.
In the end, though, I had a thoroughly good time with this dark little drama, which was a definite step away from the cutesy fluff that passes for British dramedy these days. If you like a little old-fashioned weird, then give this one a shot - I think you'll find it a thoroughly rewarding couple of hours.
Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) isn't funny no matter how you look at him - at least, that's what we're told. We only see a couple of snippets of his routine as he bombs on his first big Vegas night, and while I really enjoyed the dark desperation of it, the audience are less impressed and it's up to his legendary father George (Jerry Lewis) to save the day. Consumed by self-disgust, Tommy flees the city and the country, flying back to the English seaside resort of Blackpool where he spent the first six halcyon years of his life. Here, he hopes to find material he can buy so that he can finally make it big. Instead, however, he encounters the transcendently funny Jack Parker (Lee Evans). Parker and his family are something of an enigma, and in trying to find out what makes them tick, Tommy lands up getting a lot more than he bargained for.
I liked this one, really I did. Sure, it's tonally consistent - maybe Chelsom really was trying to make a comedy rather than a dark drama about clowns - but there's a certain gloom and lyricism about it that really appealed. Maybe it's Blackpool, a town I love with all my heart but also one which might just possibly be the saddest place on earth, using sleaze and sequins to cover some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. Once, Blackpool could attract the likes of Sinatra; these days, it's a living graveyard for the sort of variety acts that have no place in modern society. It's a fitting setting for a film that dips the tip of a toe into surrealism, with one really cute chase sequence set in the workings of the fairground ghost train.
Performances vary from good to great, with Platt and Lewis solid but Evans and Leslie Caron (as his mother, Katie) positively luminous. I've never been a huge fan of Lee Evans' standup, but here he displays a complexity and sincerity that put a lot of more experienced actors to shame. The cinematography is beautifully queasy, too, with characters often filmed on the slant to emphasise their fundamental oddness.
With all that said? It's still a mess, unfortunately. There's a few too many plot threads with only nominal relevance to the central story, and even the subplot that opens the movie could, I think, have been lost to create a tidier, more elegant piece. My other gripe would be a thematic one, with the film's insistence that clowning is the funniest form of comedy. While I really do admire clever physical comedy, it's not something that makes me laugh out loud, and it all just felt a little too close to anti-intellectualism for my personal taste.
In the end, though, I had a thoroughly good time with this dark little drama, which was a definite step away from the cutesy fluff that passes for British dramedy these days. If you like a little old-fashioned weird, then give this one a shot - I think you'll find it a thoroughly rewarding couple of hours.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Minions (2015)
It feels as though I had to wait forever for Minions to come out on Sky. Ironically, I don't even particularly know why I was waiting so eagerly - sure, the other parts of the Despicable Me franchise were cute, but they carried about as much substance as a wet fart. Even then, I was never as sold on the dungaree-clad Minion characters as a lot of people - I always thought they were a low-rent rip-off of the genuinely hilarious aliens from Toy Story. Still, times are tough, and I suppose lately I've been feeling as though I need all the cute I can get in my life.
Let's start by stating the obvious: your enjoyment of this one is going to be predicated upon your enjoyment of the Minions themselves. If they annoyed you in their previous movie appearances, this isn't going to convert you - heck, even if you're a confirmed fan, 91 minutes is an awful lot of time to spend in their company. It passes briskly enough for the most part, especially in the early stages when we watch Minion evolution from single-cell organisms to their present form. Unfortunately, however, once the main plot arc kicks in, it all rather slows down, with the likes of Jon Hamm, Sandra Bullock and Michael Keaton doing what they can with a script that feels ludicrous even by the franchise's own low standards.
There were cute touches, though, and I smiled a lot even if I don't recall laughing out loud. I liked the 1960s setting and music, and as Mr. Beaupepys pointed out, it was refreshing to see cars that looked distinctively recognisable as well as merely period-appropriate. The Minions themselves were also tooth-achingly sweet, but I know some people find their babbling insufferably smug and on a different day, I might have been one of them.
On the whole, I'd say this was one for the kids. Make sure you stick around for the opening titles, however, which are the funniest part of the whole film.
Let's start by stating the obvious: your enjoyment of this one is going to be predicated upon your enjoyment of the Minions themselves. If they annoyed you in their previous movie appearances, this isn't going to convert you - heck, even if you're a confirmed fan, 91 minutes is an awful lot of time to spend in their company. It passes briskly enough for the most part, especially in the early stages when we watch Minion evolution from single-cell organisms to their present form. Unfortunately, however, once the main plot arc kicks in, it all rather slows down, with the likes of Jon Hamm, Sandra Bullock and Michael Keaton doing what they can with a script that feels ludicrous even by the franchise's own low standards.
There were cute touches, though, and I smiled a lot even if I don't recall laughing out loud. I liked the 1960s setting and music, and as Mr. Beaupepys pointed out, it was refreshing to see cars that looked distinctively recognisable as well as merely period-appropriate. The Minions themselves were also tooth-achingly sweet, but I know some people find their babbling insufferably smug and on a different day, I might have been one of them.
On the whole, I'd say this was one for the kids. Make sure you stick around for the opening titles, however, which are the funniest part of the whole film.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
Inspired naughtiness today, courtesy of Jason Reitman. Thank You for Smoking was his first full-length feature and it's a little slice of genius, as gleefully subversive as you could hope for. Based on a novel by Christopher Buckley, it stars the brilliant Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, top spokesman for the tobacco lobby. Square-jawed and utterly unrepentant, he meets for regular drinking sessions with his equivalents from the tobacco and gun industry - they call themselves the Mod Squad (Merchants of Death) and indulge in occasional pissing contests as to whose cause kills the most Americans per year.
Eckhart narrates events covering a few months in Naylor's life, as his star rises and he tries to connect with his young son. There's not a huge amount of plot, and what there is doesn't really kick in until around halfway through. It doesn't matter, though - as monsters go, Naylor is a delicious one and I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent in his company. He encounters a variety of horrifying but compelling characters (J.K. Simmons is great as his boss, while William H. Macy swaps his usual slightly pathetic everyman persona for a similar role as a slightly pathetic Vermont senator), and it's left to the audience to watch in appalled but enthralled incredulity. In an elegant touch, none of the cast are ever seen smoking no matter how eloquently they speak for the habit.
There's more I could say about this, I'm sure, but sometimes a light touch is best. This is 92 minutes of solid, smart entertainment, and I'm not sure I can offer any higher recommendation than that.
Eckhart narrates events covering a few months in Naylor's life, as his star rises and he tries to connect with his young son. There's not a huge amount of plot, and what there is doesn't really kick in until around halfway through. It doesn't matter, though - as monsters go, Naylor is a delicious one and I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent in his company. He encounters a variety of horrifying but compelling characters (J.K. Simmons is great as his boss, while William H. Macy swaps his usual slightly pathetic everyman persona for a similar role as a slightly pathetic Vermont senator), and it's left to the audience to watch in appalled but enthralled incredulity. In an elegant touch, none of the cast are ever seen smoking no matter how eloquently they speak for the habit.
There's more I could say about this, I'm sure, but sometimes a light touch is best. This is 92 minutes of solid, smart entertainment, and I'm not sure I can offer any higher recommendation than that.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Megamind (2010)
Looking down Wikipedia's helpful list of Dreamworks' animated features. I can in fact see that they've done plenty I haven't particularly liked, as well as a fair few I haven't fancied enough to watch. I was never that taken with Shark Tale, for instance, or Madagascar, whilst Turbo sounded far too much like an answer to Pixar's Cars, which in itself was a question that never needed asking.
I think that in terms of sheer quality, though, they've scored more hits than misses. Arguably they're not always as brave or as creative as Pixar, but then Pixar movies tend to leave me annoyingly underwhelmed (A Bug's Life, Wall E), a sobbing wreck of mangled emotions (Inside Out, when I get around to watching it, I bloody guarantee it) or both (Up, one of the least enjoyable movies I've ever had the misfortune to watch). If I fancy a spot of animation and I settle down in front of something by Dreamworks, I do so in the (reasonably) certain knowledge that I'll be able to enjoy something visually appealing voiced by big name talent, neither of which are necessarily a guarantee of a good time, but both of which definitely help.
That said? Before viewing, my expectations of Megamind weren't particularly high - blame it on Will Ferrell's name at the top of the poster, perhaps, or the fact that the animation in the trailers just looked that little bit too crude and lazy. Still, I've had a rough couple of days and was in the mood for some cute cartoons, and when I thought about Dreamworks animations I hadn't yet seen it sounded like the best of a mediocre bunch.
It's a shame, really, that Megamind and Despicable Me were released in the same year - given that they were both CGI animations with supervillains as the main protagonists, one of the pair was inevitably going to be an also-ran. Despicable Me was more kid-friendly and, thanks to the Minion characters, infinitely more marketable, which is presumably why it took the laurels. Having watched them both, though, I think Megamind might just about squeak it as my favourite of the two.
I liked a lot of things about Megamind, but my favourite thing about it its surprisingly mature take on romance - no love at first sight here for Ferrell's blue-skinned alien menace and intrepid reporter Roxanne Ritchie (voiced by Tina Fey), just a slow-growing mutual respect. Roxanne wasn't shy about calling out her geeky cameraman, either, when he grew too pushy. It was wonderful to see the creepy manchild not only fail to get the girl, but also to be called on his bs and bested by somebody with far better manners.
On a more superficial level, meanwhile, I really enjoyed the cheerfully ludicrous hair metal soundtrack and matching visuals; the opening few seconds of the climactic battle left me grinning like an idiot at our antihero's sheer showmanship. I might not enjoy listening to AC/DC, but they sent me to the moon a few scenes into Megamind just like they did when they opened Iron Man.
Way more fun than Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I think that in terms of sheer quality, though, they've scored more hits than misses. Arguably they're not always as brave or as creative as Pixar, but then Pixar movies tend to leave me annoyingly underwhelmed (A Bug's Life, Wall E), a sobbing wreck of mangled emotions (Inside Out, when I get around to watching it, I bloody guarantee it) or both (Up, one of the least enjoyable movies I've ever had the misfortune to watch). If I fancy a spot of animation and I settle down in front of something by Dreamworks, I do so in the (reasonably) certain knowledge that I'll be able to enjoy something visually appealing voiced by big name talent, neither of which are necessarily a guarantee of a good time, but both of which definitely help.
That said? Before viewing, my expectations of Megamind weren't particularly high - blame it on Will Ferrell's name at the top of the poster, perhaps, or the fact that the animation in the trailers just looked that little bit too crude and lazy. Still, I've had a rough couple of days and was in the mood for some cute cartoons, and when I thought about Dreamworks animations I hadn't yet seen it sounded like the best of a mediocre bunch.
It's a shame, really, that Megamind and Despicable Me were released in the same year - given that they were both CGI animations with supervillains as the main protagonists, one of the pair was inevitably going to be an also-ran. Despicable Me was more kid-friendly and, thanks to the Minion characters, infinitely more marketable, which is presumably why it took the laurels. Having watched them both, though, I think Megamind might just about squeak it as my favourite of the two.
I liked a lot of things about Megamind, but my favourite thing about it its surprisingly mature take on romance - no love at first sight here for Ferrell's blue-skinned alien menace and intrepid reporter Roxanne Ritchie (voiced by Tina Fey), just a slow-growing mutual respect. Roxanne wasn't shy about calling out her geeky cameraman, either, when he grew too pushy. It was wonderful to see the creepy manchild not only fail to get the girl, but also to be called on his bs and bested by somebody with far better manners.
On a more superficial level, meanwhile, I really enjoyed the cheerfully ludicrous hair metal soundtrack and matching visuals; the opening few seconds of the climactic battle left me grinning like an idiot at our antihero's sheer showmanship. I might not enjoy listening to AC/DC, but they sent me to the moon a few scenes into Megamind just like they did when they opened Iron Man.
Way more fun than Avengers: Age of Ultron.
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