Will Farrell voices the title role, a bulbous-headed character who practically rubs his hands in glee at the thought of doing bad things, and lives for the thought of conquering his nemesis, an All-American sort named Metro Man and voiced by Brad Pitt. Megamind's sole plan, week after week, to trap and kill Metro Man is to kidnap newscaster Roxanne (Tina Fey) and hold her as bait until Metro Man comes to her rescue. He finally succeeds in killing Metro Man, only to discover that life is quite boring without a nemesis to fight.
He conjures up a formula to create a superhero, but accidentally injects it into Roxanne's bumbling cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill). Nursing a massive inferiority complex and a crush on Roxanne, Hal christens himself Tighten and unleashes a reign of terror, using his powers for the forces of evil.
Meanwhile, Megamind has been masquerading as a mild-mannered good guy, stumbling into a romance with Roxanne that pushes him further away from the dark side, to the dismay of his best friend Minion (David Cross), a robot with a goldfish bowl as his head.
The problems begin with the story, which is laid out in a confused and muddled fashion, and exacerbated by the voices, which are again cast more for name value than appropriateness for the role. Dreamworks continues to rely on stars with no particular aptitude for distinctive voice work; Brad Pitt is bland as possible, and Will Farrell's comic chops are cut in two without his body language to complement the wisecracks. Strangely enough, this is an area where animation should be able to pick up the slack, but Megamind (the character) is far less interesting to watch than Farrell would be as a live-action equivalent.
Jonah Hill is whiny and nasal, becoming tiresome to hear, while Tina Fey fares better, probably because she's best at delivering verbal stingers. David Cross also does well with his delivery.
The script doesn't have enough fresh funny business or clever jokes to distract from the narrative and character faults. What does work very well are the action sequences, constructed to maximize swooping movements through time and space. It's in those sequences that the 3D effects delight the eye without making the stomach queasy, inspiring thoughts of fantasy flights through skyscraper-filled cities.
If only, somehow, 3D could conquer evil all on its own, without those pesky characters and barely amusing jokes getting in the way ...