(PG) 95min

Following on from this year’s other super-villain cartoon Despicable Me, DreamWorks’ Megamind does at least boasts an original premise and it is this: what would happen if Lex Luthor actually succeeded in killing off Superman? Or rather, what if the crowd-pleasing superhero Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt) was vanquished by the Mekon-headed Megamind (Will Ferrell)?

The answer is that even the most evil genius would experience something of a loss of career direction, with poor Megamind quickly bored by being ruler of Metro City, yet still desperate to win the heart of foxy TV reporter Roxanne (Tina Fey). Realising that there’s no show without Punch, Megamind endows Roxie’s frat-boy cameraman (Jonah Hill) with super-powers, leading to a confrontation which reverses the roles by casting Megamind as the city’s saviour.

Director Tom McGrath’s work on the two Madagascar films promises Tex Avery-style humour, but Megamind comes up surprisingly short on laughs, apart from a delicious turn by Justin Theroux, spoofing Marlon Brando’s lisping performance in Superman. Where Despicable Me placed its nefarious hero within the context of a familial sitcom, Megamind is more of a rom-com at heart, as the alien discovers a sense of civic duty while he attempts to woo Roxie.

Sporting parent-pleasing rock tunes including ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, Megamind is still enjoyable enough as a twist on comic book convention, but despite a likeably indecisive hero, it never finds anything more than 2D characters within its impressively rendered 3D action.

General release from Fri 3 Dec.