Megamind

In the next two months, there'll be seven big 3d films on the big screen. The first one out the gate is Dreamworks's Megamind, which 3d or not, is still worth the time.

Megamind (Will Ferrell) and Metroman (Brad Pitt) are Metro City's equivalent of Lex Luthor and Superman, respectively. In fact, like Supes, both were rocketed to Earth from doomed planets. It just happened that Metroman landed in a nice mansion while Megamind landed in prison. During one routine clash between the two, Megamind decides to introduce Metroman to his new death ray.

Except that this time, it actually works. Metroman is gone.

Without Metroman, Megamind is blue in every sense of the word. So he decides to actually empower some random bloke into a superhero who'd give him his reason for living back. Except that he empowers Hal (Jonah Hill), cameraman of ace reporter Roxanne (Tina Fey), who as Titan, is not just super, but a truer villain than Megamind. Oops...

The use of 3d here is quite super. Whether it involves characters or buildings flying at the screen, or Megamind's flying Brain-Bot mascots, the 3d here has many ways to show itself.

Without the 3d, the film is also super. The voice actors help a lot, including Ferrell as the likable "bad guy" or Hill as the dorky nice guy turned sour. And David Cross, as Megamind's "Minion" (that's his name), also made a nice character come alive. In live-action, the acting here probably won't work well, but animation is a different story.

In terms of this year's animated films, its better than Shrek, but Toy Story and Despicable Me are probably (slightly) better. But still, this is quite the film to start the holidays with.

JETHRO'S NOTE: The other 3d films coming out this year are Tangled, The Nutcracker, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, Tron Legacy, Yogi Bear, and Gulliver's Travels.