Monday, November 15, 2010

Megamind - Genius - Brilliant in Every Way

IF I COULD GIVE THIS MOVIE TEN STARS...
Wait a minute -- I can

Ah-Hem. I GIVE THIS MOVIE TEN STARS!! and a smidge more.
MEGAMIND

I went to this movie because it was my nephew's birthday, and this was his birthday pick. I wasn't expecting much. From the trailers it looked like it was going to be similar to Monsters and Aliens (which I really liked, by-the-way). I couldn't see how doing the same thing over again would be worth the effort.

Boy was I in for a surprise. I LOVED it. And if I can be so bold, your kids will LOVE it. You parents will love it. Grandparents will love it. Your dog will love it. Even your fish will love it.

(There's a fish in the movie--the only spoiler I'll give. I promise.)
Now I'm going into enthusiastic writer mode. Tum da da. (If you're not a writer and don't really care about writer things and how to put a story together you can skip this next part.)

Here goes, without giving away any spoilers... Everything we writers try to get into our work is here in this movie.

Do we know the character's backstory? Yes.
Do we learn what what the stakes are prior to the first plot point? Yes.
Do the inner demons show up that come to bear on the hero later in the story? Yes.
Is the first plot point located properly within the story sequence? Yes.
Does it change the hero's agenda going forward? Yes.
Is there opposition to the hero meeting that need? Yes.
Does the antagonistic force have something at stake? Yes.
DO WE CARE? Yes.
Is there a mid-point contextual shift/twist in the story? Yes.
Does this pump up dramatic tension and pace? Yes.

Is there any character arc? Yes, all the characters have HUGE arcs.

It's all there. Everything the story is supposed to have from the beginning to the finish.

It was fun to watch it all work.
Besides that, it's just a fun movie.

Final notes: The music is by Hans Zimmer and has that great Hans Zimmer sound.
AND - just because the credits start running doesn't mean the movie is over.

My Newest Follower - Rick:
You can find him at [The Writer and The White Cat], and [Incident Commander].

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to see it! Hubby and Kidlet 1 went on a Daddy date and saw it without the rest of us. :( I'll see it when it comes to the cheap theater, I guess.

Rick said...

Wow! You sold me and I now have a great reason to go see it.

Karlee:] said...

If you like Megamind you should see my blog post titled Megamind Quotes.

P.S. my bible teacher's (i go to a private school)daughter was a co-producer chick and gave us all de-hydrator guns!

http://www.invisibleinidaho.blogspot.com