Never Mind- MEGAMIND Review

This year, Dreamworks has pumped out three animated films. Of Shrek Forever After, there's really nothing more to say than how samey it was, but the real triumph has been How To Train Your Dragon. The first outright excellent film to come from the company since Shrek, it probably would have won the Best Animated Picture Oscar away from Pixar if it had only come out in the year where they offered Cars 2 instead of the superb Toy Story 3. Somewhere in between Shrek and the dragons, falls Megamind.

The titular blue-bonced supervillain comes from the Superman origin story, jettisoned from an exploding galaxy to Earth by loving parents when he was just a baby. The same applies to his arch-nemesis Metroman, with whom he engages in elaborate battles. He never wins, except for the day that he accidentally does. With Metroman dead, Megamind reevaluates his career in evil and realises that something has to be done to restore the old status quo.

When the origin of your main character is a reference to Superman, you know you're probably in the vicinity of a Dreamworks film. Let's be very clear in stating that the chief difference between the superb How To Train Your Dragon and this more middling effort is that the former was a film made by Dreamworks, and the latter is a Dreamworks film. All of the studio's old tropes are back, and en masse. That same bloody expression with the cocked eyebrow, celebrity voice talents and a faux-Disney "it's what's inside that counts" moral message.

More than that, if you're Dreamworks, it's not the best choice to make a film about the politics of superpowered rivalry, post-Incredibles. Especially when your protagonist is constantly trying to measure up to an enemy who's similar in method and origin and always falls short of beating them. It would seem like a manifestation of the studio's short man syndrome with the almighty Pixar, doing "superheroes" as a theme with more bombast and bravado, but with none of the subtlety or resonance of The Incredibles. It's like making Shark Tale after Finding Nemo. Oh, hang about...

All of this said though, Megamind is far from a waste of time. In the year when Hiccup and Toothless flying through the skies made jaws drop, this one has some incredible action spectacle that really uses the medium to its fullest advantage. There are genuinely creative battles and disasters on show here that would be impossible to realise in live action, even with the greatest special effects available at the moment. You wouldn't want to see them in live-action either, because that's how things like 2012 happen. But in animation, the real highlights of this film are in visual delights such as a huge skyscraper crashing down a street after two characters like an unstoppable locomotive.

I predicted a while back that this film and Despicable Me would turn out as proportionately the exact same story. I was wrong, but the films did level out at around the same level of quality. Both films had fun playing with the technological innovations their hyper-intelligent antiheroes could muster, but both films ended up borrowing a lot from other sources. In the case of Megamind, aside from the Superman allegory that peaks with Will Ferrell doing a killer impression of Marlon Brando as Jor-El, there are a ton of oblique references that go over kids' heads and won't impress adults that much. The post-modern superhero film has actually become hackneyed in itself, over the last year or so, especially when it was clearly done best by Brad Bird, in 2004.

As to the script, it could have used some work. Even without the compulsively spoilerish trailers and clips that have been floating around, the plot is astonishingly predictable. More than that, it's not really that funny. If the film's meant to be a comedy, and it's certainly been marketed as such, it should have made me laugh more. As it was, I found the teaser trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2 to be a funnier watch, before the main feature began. It's more diverting than it is humourous, which is fine if you don't go in expecting a comedy.

On balance, Megamind is more of the same from Dreamworks, and such a mechanical feature that I could probably tell you exactly what the plot of Megamind 2 will be if the numbers add up correctly for Jeffrey Katzenberg to greenlight a sequel. With some promising creative developments at the studio, hopefully this film and next year's trifecta of sequels will be the last of their kind before Dreamworks goes into a period of renaissance. Maybe they'll learn how to animate new facial expressions along the way. But crucially, they just might inject some sense of fun that's sorely been lacking in their last few similar efforts.

Megamind is now showing in 2D and 3D, at cinemas nationwide.
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If you've seen Megamind, why not share your comments below? If you're wondering what next year's trifecta is, it's Kung Fu Panda 2, Madagascar 3 and Puss In Boots. And all Pixar is offering up is Cars 2. Boy, next year is gonna suck. Except Kung Fu Panda, natch.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Ogre Done- SHREK FOREVER AFTER Review

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.
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You'll be surprised how easy it is to pretend Shrek the Third didn't happen while watching the new one. That works in the favour of Shrek Forever After. Without much of the invention that made the first one a hit, this latest trip to Far Far Away finds Shrek in the throes of a mid-life crisis. No, really. Enter Rumpelstiltskin, an odious little dickhead who has a grudge against Shrek, with a promise to make everything better, It's A Wonderful Life-style. As per usual, the world isn't so good when our hero was never born, and Shrek has 24 hours to put things right.

If it needs saying for animation fans, then no, this isn't anywhere near as good as Dreamworks' critical darling of 2010, How To Train Your Dragon. Nor is it as good as Shrek or even the slight step-down of the first sequel. Being a series for kids, its target audience probably love all of these films, but it still falls to nuts like me to review this kind of thing.

At four films, we're now in the territory where the film's resorting to Rumpelstiltskin and the Pied Piper as new characters. With Humpty Dumpty and the Golden Goose slated for the upcoming Puss in Boots spin-off, there's definitely a whiff of shoving whatever they can think of into this one and saving the good stuff for the film that actually shows promise. With 3D attached too, it definitely feels like Dreamworks is capitalising on their brand rather than telling a new story.

As I've already said, the film is best enjoyed if you forget Shrek the Third happened, because Shrek Forever After is thankfully a better film and one that might just as easily have followed Shrek 2, and made the series a round trilogy. While Rumpelstiltskin is a bit of a stretch, he makes a pretty effective villain. His nasally tones, provided by Dreamworks animator Walt Dohrn, set him firmly as a pretty desperate character rather than as the uber-cool Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog or the mentally damaged villain in the upcoming Toy Story 3. Disney has gotten better at this stuff than they were around the time Shrek came out.

Our jolly green hero on the other hand is as irascible as ever, and takes centre stage in the plot development for a change. But Shrek has never been the funniest character in his own films, and the appearances of Donkey, Puss in Boots et al makes the film feel sketchy in a way that the first two in the series didn't. Not to mention that this is essentially a spoof of It's A Wonderful Life, the one plot arc that many TV series have resorted to when they simply run out of steam.

The BBFC report makes an interesting point on this as well. The film has been rated U despite having mild fight scenes. The report expands upon this to say that the fight scenes involve "knife threat", but because this violence is "directed at Shrek, it conveys little sense of real danger and fits within the 'U' allowance". Doesn't that sum up the series at this point? Audiences have actually stopped caring about the ogre. The character who made a splash back in 2001 has become symbolic of the very thing that Dreamworks began by taking the piss out of. This series is now a commercial machine, devoid of much emotional investment, resorting to cliché and the same old deus ex machina as earlier instalments.

In listing any grievances with this sequel, I'm inevitably going to sound like I want you all out of my swamp. Don't get me wrong- I imagine kids and die-hard fans of all the films will love this one too, but my not entirely grumpy point is that I can't imagine it holding much cross-generational appeal. Remember how great the first Shrek was because it appealed to everyone, kids and adults alike? When the funniest new gag comes courtesy of a fat little boy with a catchphrase, something's gone awry with the script.

It's not saying much to buzz that Shrek Forever After is better than the last outing, as I'm still not particularly sorry to see this series conclude. This one is a diverting film that's not nearly as crass as some of Dreamworks' other output, but after seeing How To Train Your Dragon this year, you could really hope for better. The best joke the series has to offer after the first film is getting its own spin-off film at the end of next year anyway, so to finally close the book on Shrek isn't particularly premature.

Shrek Forever After is showing in cinemas nationwide in 2D and 3D from July 1st.
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If you've seen Shrek Forever After, why not share your comments on the films and/or my reviews below? If you're waiting for a more satisfying animated sequel, keep waiting for Toy Story 3. You're going to love it.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Avoiding THAT Face

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.

Vikings love killing dragons in the latest from Dreamworks Animation, How to Train Your Dragon. The black sheep of the island community of Berk is Hiccup, son of chieftain Stoick the Vast, who's more interested in making things than killing. After a lucky shot during a dragon raid on the island's livestock, Hiccup ends up befriending Toothless, a rare dragon whose tale he managed to damage. As he learns more about Toothless, he comes to realise that Viking dogma about dragons is entirely wrong, and that there may be a way for both to co-exist. But as the pressure mounts on Hiccup to continue the Viking legacy in light of his new understanding, their friendship becomes difficult to maintain...
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From the outset, I have to say that How to Train Your Dragon should really be the criterion for Dreamworks Animation. Under bean-counting Jeffrey Katzenberg, the studio has had more misses than successes because they just rehash animation's greatest hits and their own back-catalogue. When I say misses, I mean creatively and not just the contribution to the studio's bank balance- no one will persuade me that Madagascar 3 is being made for any other reason than to capitalise on the box office returns of the first two. Instead, Dreamworks frequently brings in anachronistic pop-culture references and less than talented voice actors who just have bankable names, dating their output considerably.

How to Train Your Dragon on the other hand is just a revelation, and it's potentially the best thing the studio has ever made. Yes, possibly better than Shrek, a film which has suffered in my reckoning for being dated and of course the multitude of sequels. This isn't a film where a bunch of talking animals pull that expression. You know the one. Yeah, THAT one. This is a film that does have sequel prospects from the follow-up books in the series this is based on, but operates entirely fine as a self-contained story. Also, the voice cast are relatively suitable for their roles as opposed to putting Jack Black in as a Viking- even though one of the young characters actually looks to have been modelled on the Dreamworks stalwart.

There are various recognisable tropes and staples, but then most films have those, and How to Train Your Dragon treats the "going native with the perceived enemy" plot with an approach that is distinct to Avatar, which was in production at the same time as this. There are a lot of coincidental similarities with that film actually, but not distractingly so. The upside of this is that it is just as visually bedazzling, with the unlikely choice of Roger Deakins as cinematographer elevating the look of the film to truly spectacular heights. The script is also strong, even if it's not as typically comedic as fans of Dreamworks may expect. What's good about this is that it's more witty than funny, and I found that much more preferable to having a horde of gags that miss the mark. And when it was funny, I really laughed out loud.

Of course, it's not perfect. I do still have a couple of complaints with the voice acting, specifically that the Scottish tones of Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson work well with the adult Vikings, but why then have all the young protagonists been Americanised in dialect? This is by no means a new thing in Western animation, but Jay Baruchel's vocal performance as Hiccup is more reminiscent of Woody Allen than of anything even approaching Norse. David Tennant became a fan favourite amongst readers for narrating the audiobooks and some of the film's promotional material- could they not have got him into the film too? In that much at least, I think Katzenberg's influence is detectable, as he also runs a couple of through those greatest hits of animation in a couple of sequences that seemed inspired by scenes in Aladdin.

For the most part, I have next to no complaints. It's not up there with the best of Pixar, but you should know that the trailers for How to Train Your Dragon really don't do justice to this exciting family adventure that's very easy to like. The character design and script are both nearly flawless, and if it's let down by some of the voice acting, it doesn't bring the whole venture down. Although the final setpiece somewhat contravenes the film's central morality, it's still a sound morality for the most part- don't be afraid of what you don't understand, and try to learn about it instead. It's more thoughtful and gripping than I could have hoped for, and it's a truly unexpected pleasure to watch it.

How to Train Your Dragon is in cinemas nationwide now, showing in 2D and 3D. I saw it in 2D, obviously, because I really believe 3D doesn't add anything. In this case, I really don't mind how you see it, so long as you do. Films like this from a studio like Dreamworks deserve to do well- let me know what you think in the comments.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.