Megamind

Megamind is a movie about a villain who accidentally succeeds in doing away with his arch-nemesis, Metro Man. After reveling in his glory for a while, he starts to feel something strange: he misses Metroman. Inspiration strikes with a dastardly (and bound-to-fail) plot, and Megamind creates a new arch-nemesis, Titan. However, instead of using his powers for good, Titan sets out to destroy the world, putting Megamind in the position to be good and save it (and get the girl) for the first time in his life.

I went into this movie without knowing the synopsis, which I think is better. It made the movie unpredictable for me, which was great. The downside to many superhero movies these days is the plot is usually cut and dry. Evil guy bad. Evil guy trying to rule/kill the world. Good guy destroys/prevails over evil guy. Good guy gets girl. The end.

Armed with a pretty awesome soundtrack, Megamind does the unpredictable (that is, unless you know the plot, but it's still not your average superhero movie). There are twists and turns that don't show up in many of these movies but of course, the hero gets the girl. However, it's in a really really good way.

I can't tell you or it would ruin it.


Megamind is not particularly inspired or even very deep. It doesn't address any big issues or solve any world problems. It just is what it is. Some of its twisty bits aren't very original, and it doesn't always have a lot of momentum, but it makes up for it with clever scenes and moving moments — or just plain funny ones. It never becomes unbearably slow and it does keep it's slower moments to a minimum time-wise. It won't have you rolling on the floor laughing until your sides ache (for the wrong reasons or the right ones), but it will incite more than a few chuckles.

It may not become movie of the year, but it's a fun movie and worth seeing.

The Losers (2010)

"Pretend you're this really evil guy..." actor Chris Evans (Jensen) deadpans, much to my delight.

It was a good movie, even though it was called "The Losers." Unfortunately for it — and me — it had one of those really dumb cliffhanger endings that just makes you not want to see the second one ("Push" anyone?). Where you're not really sure what happened, but it's over and they're rolling those wrap up clips during the credits.

And the bad guy is still alive. What the hell?

"The Losers" follows five, well, for lack of a better term, losers who were CIA black-ops who end up getting screwed over (and 25 children killed on top of that, talk about rubbing salt into open wounds) and left for dead. Along traipses a sultry, Lara-Croft-esque Zoe Saldana (Aisha) from god-knows-where-or-why (though we later discover) with an itchy trigger finger for the guy who betrayed the squad of losers. Classic one-liners and appropriate gunfire ensues.

What I loved was the artsy, comic-book camera cuts, angles, and shots. It took the "we're taking ourselves too seriously" completely out of the picture. The movie recognized the fact that it is made by a comic book corporation (and I think it's also based on a comic book). Instead of overly-serious, not-very-talented actors who wouldn't know a bad script if it bit them in the face, "The Losers" presents us with a decent, if not particularly deep script, demi-talented actors, and enough arty shots that the movie is taken away from the laugh-out-loud ridiculous and safely into the realm of "okay, I like this movie."

That is, until they ruin it at the end.

Luckily, the script is peppered with enough witty remarks, only a very few overblown action scenes, and a snide swipe at American government in the form of a very bad guy to almost make up for the fact that you will, in fact, have to pay more money to see if they get the bad guy or not. Doubly lucky that it's also out on DVD, so you can order it conveniently on your Netflix and pay very little to see it.

Ergo, it's worth seeing. Good for a giggle and entertaining enough to be worth the time spent watching it. Just prepare yourself for the unfortunate ending.

Yours,
The Movie-ist