'Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate' Review This Hero Should Stay a Villain

October 16, 2024

The Big Picture

Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate lacks a compelling plot and has underwhelming stakes.
This sequel to Megamind does not elevate the animation in any aspect, lacking humor and depth.
The sequel seems more like an extended TV episode than a feature film and offers nothing to older fans of the original.

One of the things that set the title character Megamind apart in the 2010 animated film was that his limited wits made him funny and kind of helped you root for him throughout the story. The sequel, which is coming out way later than one would expect, is tasked with showing Megamind as a full-blown hero with a villain background, as well as what that implies for Metro City inhabitants and the protagonist. But, even just a few minutes in, it becomes clear that Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate has no idea what to do with any of its characters.

Picking up only two days after the events of Megamind, the sequel centers around the villain-turned-hero (voiced this time by Keith Ferguson) learning to come to terms with his new identity. His life gets difficult when he is visited by The Doom Syndicate, his former team that still thinks that Megamind is a major villain who is devising a master plan to take over Mega City. Meanwhile, he deals with three allies who are trying to become some form of sidekick to the new hero.

'Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate' Lacks... Well... Everything

The first head-scratcher from Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate is that you’d think there’s a reason for the creative decision of having virtually no time since the events of the first movie. It would make sense if the story focused on Megamind acclimating to his new superhero role and the sort of ethical decisions that come with the title. But there’s none of that here. Of course, we can’t always expect very complex storylines from a kids’ movie, but even Despicable Me’s Gru managed to have a less-than-basic journey from villain to hero. Also, the first Megamind was a wildly entertaining ride that had fun with superhero vs. supervillain tropes, while the sequel barely seems to know how to construct a story.

In Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate, the stakes are surprisingly low. While the title character struggles to protect his secret from his former friends, the group of villains never pose a real threat because they spend a good chunk of the movie waiting to see Megamind's non-existent evil plan come to fruition. Meanwhile, it’s never really clear why Megamind holds on so strongly to the façade that he’s still a villain. In the hands of more skilled screenwriters, that could make a pretty good conflict and/or identity crisis that formed the core of the story, but here it is just a stalling technique to make the movie longer than a TV episode.

At the same time, it would be better if Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate was advertised as the extended first episode of the companion series Megamind Rules!, because the production values certainly reflect it. For a feature film, Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate has a pretty underwhelming style, with lifeless production design and simple character looks that certainly don't help the story come alive. In the era of gorgeous-looking animations like Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Megamind 2 falls flat even if you lower your standards and compare it with productions from the 2010s, which would be more or less when this new story takes place.

'Megamind' Is Sorely Missing Will Ferrell's Voice

It doesn't help that Megamind himself suffered a change in his voice. You wouldn't expect the personality of a character to be modified when the voice actor gets swapped, but this is what happens here. When he was voiced by Will Ferrell, Megamind had a fresh excitement to his tone that also hid a desperate attempt to be accepted. With Ferguson, all of that is gone (along with the strong accent), and the fact that only a couple of days passed between movies makes it seem like Megamind changed personalities altogether in the blink of an eye.

The same is true for the supporting characters’ voices and individual storylines. Roxanne (Laura Post) wants to do more than report catastrophes in Mega City, but Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons' script has no idea how to make the connection between where she starts and where she ends in the movie. In fact, her ending comes as a bit of a surprise and out of nowhere. Additionally, Ol' Chum (Josh Brener) wants to prove his worth, and that leads him to part ways with Megamind. But we never really see a journey for the character, and it seems like the movie just waits it out to put them back together, then call it evolution.

'Megamind 2' Is Indeed Best Suited For TV

These kinds of thin plots are usually what you see in TV episodes that are basically designed to keep kids distracted. Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate ignores that there’s a whole slate of fans of the original who are now older, and the sequel offers them nothing. This would all be fine if the movie focused instead on being funny, but aside from a quip now and then, Megamind 2 is devoid of humor.

With vaguely established threats and storylines, Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate is the movie equivalent of meeting a friend you missed for many years only to realize that the encounter didn’t really need to happen. The movie does serve as an introduction to Megamind Rules! – especially due to the final scene – but it’s hard to imagine that Peacock didn’t just take some episodes of the show and bundle them together to form this movie.