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Show A&EDiversions Friday, Nov. 12, 2010 Page 7 'Megamind' is successful animated film The Dreamworks team has done it again. They made an animated movie that was clever, hilarious and had a positive lesson to teach its young audience. While all of the movies have a lot of similarities, they are all also unique, and continue to be successful and entertaining for audiences of all ages. Their newest creation, "Megamind," was no exception. It was a fun movie to watch and lived up to all expectations I had for it. The character of villain "Megamind," voiced by Will Ferrell, is a lanky blue alien with a big head who was sent to Earth as a baby by his parents as his planet was being destroyed. He lands in a prison and is taught the ways of evil. While attending elementary school, his rivalry with superhero Metro Man, voiced by Brad Pitt, is born. No matter what "Megamind" tries, he is always disliked by his schoolmates, and Metro Man is always loved by them. He decides that he must be evil, because that was the only thing he was good at. As they move into adulthood, the rivalry grows and becomes a routine: "Megamind" attempts something evil to destroy Metro Man, it doesn't work, then Metro Man captures him, he gets sent to prison and then repeat. This is the endless cycle, that is, until "Megamind" finally wins. He finally defeats the great Metro Man, and therefore seizes control of the city. Now victorious, "Megamind" is free to do whatever evil thing he wants with nobody to stop him. He enjoys this freedom for some time, but after a while he realizes how boring DREAMWORKS NEWEST RELEASE, "Megamind," stars Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt. being evil is without having anyone to try and stop him. So he decides to try and create a new super hero to try and recreate the thrills he had fighting Metro Man. Meanwhile, being disguised as an everyday regular guy named Bernard, he sparks up a romance with a beautiful news reporter named Roxanne Ritchi, voiced by Tina Fey. She really starts to fall for "Bernard", which puts "Megamind" in an awkward situation. Throughout the movie he faces challenges like these that question whether or not he really is evil. In the end, he has to face a huge problem in which he must decide once and for all if he wants to be good or evil. "Megamind" was an excellent film to watch. It was very creative and funny, and had a phenomenal all-star cast to voice it. I am a huge Will Ferrell fan, and I also love Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill who played "Tighten." Another great thing was the soundtrack. "Megamind" was often seen rocking out to hits from AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Ozzy Osbourne and even Michael Jackson. I thought it was a way cool add-on that fit excellently with this film. A major minus for me though is it was in 3D. For some reason I do not understand, it is now apparently a requirement that all animated movies must be in 3D. Why is this? It is such a pain for all moviegoers. It is especially annoying that it raises the ticket price about three dollars. So I have to pay three extra dollars to make the movie less enjoyable. While the picture quality was great, it would have been just as good, if not better, without the 3D. I cannot wait for this "3D revolution" to end. Another thing that somewhat bugged me where some of the minor flaws in the plot. I know this is a movie more aimed at young audiences, but some of the flaws I think would be just as noticeable for kids. For example, there is a scene where a giant building destroys a street. Roxanne is thrown to safety on the sidewalk, but when the film shows a view from above, the sidewalk where she was is destroyed. It was just little things like this that got to me. That said, "Megamind" was still an incredible movie that the Dreamworks animation team can put in the success column. It gives the audience more than they were expecting. - jace.smellie@aggiemaiLusu.edu Guster's 'Easy Wonderful' a bit too easy I was Facebook-stalking "Easy someone the other day when my attention was caught by Wonderful" one of the annoying little Grade: C+ advertisements on the right L ET IT BE side of the screen. It said something along the lines of "If you like the Barenaked Ladies, you'll like Custer!" I know that it was more than a simple coincidence REXCOLINMITCHELL that this ad found its way to my computer screen. Someone has somehow figured out what bands I like, and has sent me personalized marketing according to that. Even though I know this, the ad still worked, at least partially. I immediately thought "Ooh, they're right, I do like the Barenaked Ladies." What the ad did wrong was underestimate my laziness - I didn't have the will to even click the "Like" button. But, the band's name stuck in my head, and when I saw that they had a new CD out, I decided to review it. In the end, I guess the ad worked. The new album, "Easy Wonderful," was interesting. Rhythm Reviews Expecting a Barenaked Ladies sound-alike band, I was surprised by what I found. The Barenaked Ladies tend to be incredibly witty with their lyrics, to the point of sometimes being cliche and corny. I heard no such cleverness in "Easy Wonderful." The lyrics were pretty flat and insensible - often a good quality in a rock song - and can get a bit boring after 15 tracks of not knowing what the song is about. Once I decided to accept they aren't that similar to my beloved Barenaked Ladies, I was able to notice more positive qualities, however. They have a nice acoustic sound, accentuated by simple drums and vocal harmonies. It's not something that sets them apart, however. You can hear a simple sound from many folk-rock bands. A few songs were interesting. One, "Stay With Me Jesus," relates several stories of people being saved from death by Jesus. I was pleased to see a mainstream band showing beliefs other than the belief that life sucks, until I heard that the song was meant to be sarcastic. I'm not sure if this is true, I never would have noticed if someone hadn't told me. However, I must admit that listening to the song after hearing that was a bit stranger. The song "Jesus and Mary" was a bit odd, especially with the lines "Jesus and Mary and Romeo and Juliet in a movie on TV plays seven days a week." I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but it's just plain weird to seemingly compare Jesus and Mary to two young and impulsive lovers. Not all the songs have religious references. "Bad Bad World" talks about how there really is good in this world, and "This Is How if Feels to Have a Broken Heart" gives a surprisingly powerful description of lost love. "Do What You Want" tells the listener to do whatever they want because "...it doesn't matter at all, no one's going to care if we disappear." All in all, the album was pretty bland. The musical side of it wasn't that exciting, except for an awesome banjo solo in "Hercules," a nice, upbeat song. In fact, all of their songs were nice and upbeat, no matter the subject material. They sounded happy whether they were singing about lost love or world peace. The enigmatic and uninteresting lyrics didn't help their case. It seems to me that if you write an album in which many of the songs sound the same, you should pair them with some clever lyrics. I don't want to listen to a bunch of lines that mention a lot of things but don't really say anything. Thanks for the advice, Facebook, but I think I'll stick with the Barenaked Ladies. - rex.colin.mitchell@aggiemaiLusu.edu Poetry: Event ties into inspiration continued from page 5 original intention this year. "I feel that PoBev needs to be more poetry and as of late it's been a lot of bands and guitarists," he said. "I don't have anything against that but if it's going to be poetry and a beverage, it needs to have more poetry." This, Pratt said, was the first motivation behind starting the Slam Poetry Club, of which he is now the president. He said it "really upsets" him to see a large number of bands at PoBev, which gave him the initiative to go through the process of starting the club this semester. "I'm not judging at all," he said. "What I'm saying is that PoBev just isn't Poetry and a Beverage; it's more band and a beverage." Pratt said he appreciates the theme and believes inspiration can come from anywhere. "Usually, it's something I can relate to, whether by performing or writing," he said. "I Diamonds Direct from Antwerp, Belgium believe the power lies in your voice. Everyone has a story. He hopes to develop PoBev in the next couple years, Pratt said, by getting more poets on stage. He hopes encouraging the members of the Slam Poetry Club to perform will help with his cause. "I would encourage everybody to get out and come to PoBev," Pratt said, "even if you aren't a poet, even if you don't get onstage." Mitchell encouraged anyone interested to come and enjoy the event. "It'll be an atmosphere where you can come hang out and socialize and drink hot chocolate," she said. "Come, chill, hangout, have fun." Pratt also encouraged students to attend. "PoBev is, and hopefully in the future it will be, about a mic a voice and a future," he said. Cca , ,ark • Shoshone itiOnal Fore Idaho Fall. 0 Idaho Rock Spnongs - k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu Spa Don'tforget... 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