Megamind
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Megamind is a 2010 American computer-animated superhero comedy film directed by Tom McGrath and produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pacific Data Images and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It features the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt. A sequel, Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, was released on March 1, 2024.
Plot
Though he is the most brilliant supervillain the world has known, Megamind (Will Ferrell) is the least successful. Thwarted time and again by heroic Metro Man (Brad Pitt), Megamind is more surprised than anyone when he manages to defeat his longtime enemy. But without Metro Man, Megamind has no purpose in life, so he creates a new opponent, who quickly decides that it's more fun to be a bad guy than a hero.
Why It's Got a Mind of Its Own
- The film is rather unique when compared to a majority of animated films released in 2010 and before then since it's a parody of superhero films and mocks many of the tropes that many of them suffer from and how overused they are in general since many superhero films usually have the heroes always being the good guy and the villains being repulsive monsters who are irredeemable and want to destroy the world, and in the end, the heroes always win and the villain always loses. Megamind, on the other hand, doesn't do this, since Megamind himself seems like a villain on the outside with how different he is from everyone, but is actually a nice person and feels neglected by society for being different since the films depict him being bullied during childhood at school and misleading to being evil by many of the criminals in prison when he was a baby, and when Metroman faked his death and caused a public outcry, Megamind becomes bored of being a villain and tries to redeem himself with him disguising himself as Bernard and befriending Roxanne, and learning to accept that being evil isn't what he was meant to be and that he still has a heart inside, and that is specially made more clear when he defeats Hal at the end of the film's climax, thus he becomes the hero of Metro City and is beloved by millions around the world.
- The film also has one of the supposed superheroes being portrayed as the main villain, as Hal becomes Titan when Megamind and Minion hijack his home and Megamind disguises himself as a fictional being from space that is meant to be Titan's "Father" and teaches him the importance of being a superhero. However, Hal isn't the type of person fit to be a superhero since he's very bratty and tends to be pretty rude at times, and the film also has some animation details that he loves reading comic books about supervillains, which is proven even further when Hal is revealed to be in love with Roxanne but she rejects him and when he sees her dating Megamind disguised as Bernard, he feels sad and decides to commit an act of villainy, and thus the fight with him and Megamind doesn't go very well and he almost kills Megamind instead bringing him to jail like what Metroman would do, and he destroys the entirety of Metro City, making this twist feel unique and a good twist on the superhero movie genre.
- Metroman is also revealed to have an entirety crisis of his own since he gets tired of being a superhero and begins to question his existence and what his purpose is, since he always gets praised for his beautiful looks and awesome superhero strength, and was a massive bully to Megamind when he was young, but he soon realizes that he wasn't acting like the man he wanted to be, so he fakes his death and gains an interest in music.
- It also focuses less on superhero action and numerous fighting scenes that most superhero movies have, as Megamind is a slice-of-life film that focuses on a character who has always been rejected by society for being different and decided to be a villain out of nowhere, but then grows tired of being one after his arch-nemesis is presumably killed by one of his weapons, so he begins to reconsider what he has done over the years and begins to befriend an old enemy of his and begins to have a change of heart. Meanwhile, he tries to create a new superhero to replace Metroman and he chooses the wrong one, he starts wreaking havoc in Metro City, and Megamind starts to consider what he has done over the years, as he almost gives up and goes to prison instead, but after he watches footage of Roxanne kidnapped by Titan, he tries to convince the Prison Colonel to set him free, but he refuses and Megamind tells him a speech about how he took things too far and redeems himself, as the Prison Colonel sets him free and reveals himself to be Minion in disguise, and thus they fight against Titan and defeat him, thus becoming heroes of Metro City.
- The animation is crisp and smooth for the time (although given how the film was made in 2010, it's pretty much to be expected from animated movies of that year). It has a unique retro 90s-esque aesthetic that gives the movie a unique look when compared to most superhero films at the time, and it combines realism and cartoonishness to make the film look more unique and stylized with the use of realistic action and cartoony humor being put to good use in the right circumstances within the film and is used very well throughout the entire film, making the animation some of the best in a film that DreamWorks have ever put out at the time with it's unique artstyle and it shows with the film having a 130 million dollar budget and DreamWorks making the film look as good as it does, which is something that the infamous sequel didn't replicate sadly.
- Excellent voice acting, shout-out to Will Ferrell as Megamind who possibly has one of the best voice roles in a DreamWorks film (and taking how many amazing roles actors have had in DreamWorks movies and the tremendous amount of incredible vocal performances that have also been found in their movies, that's really saying a lot). Other cast also includes Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt. Even the supporting cast is surprisingly good and well-cast with J.K Simmons as the Warden being probably the best example of this.
- The film's usage of foreshadowing is extremely well done and makes the film feel more intelligent when compared to other superhero movies, since there are numerous hints to later events during the runtime, and some of them are pretty hard to see but when someone sees the movie again and again, they'll be easier to spot and while some might say it makes the story feel a bit predictable, they're never mentioned by anyone and the hints themselves could likely be misunderstood in terms of the context they have, and since the film already has an original story, to begin with, it makes the film feel unpredictable and have many audiences surprised when it, making Megamind one of the most rewatchable films in DreamWorks history.
- A shockingly mature story with incredibly layered and complex characters for a family film, as it explores the Nature vs. Nurture element and the question of whether bad behavior is inherited or acquired. To put this into perspective, nothing is ever revealed about where Megamind or Metroman came from, or the inhabitants of said worlds. But the way they were both nurtured affected who they became as they grew up. Megamind was taught that crime was good and police were bad growing up, but his nature was still good at heart. However, being rejected for his differences caused him to doubt himself and give in to how he was nurtured. He never really aspired to be a villain, but society never really gave him a choice and always rejected him without ever giving him a single opportunity to show them who he was and what he aspired to be. Therefore, he grew into a villain because that was the only thing society painted him to be, and all of that rubbed off on him to the point that he changed himself into becoming what they thought of him. Later, he gains a soft spot for Roxanne, but when she finds out the truth that he was simply posing as the museum curator, she rejects him. This causes him to go back to the villainy that defied him all his life, as he's convinced that being bad is simply in his nature.
- The same also goes for Metroman. While he's praised as the city's hero, it's clear that all he cares about is the fame and acclaim he gets for his heroic deeds, despite him generally coming off as polite and affable towards the citizens of Metro City (but even then, he doesn't view them as much more than random citizens, as demonstrated when he responds to a citizen shouting that he loved him with "And I love you too, random citizen!"). This is because, unlike Megamind who landed in prison, he arrived in the custody of a loving family where he ended up being spoiled and started only acting heroically for the sake of the notoriety that comes with it from a young age. Resulting in all of that notoriety and praise he earned from achieving heroic deeds going to his head and molding him into being incredibly arrogant and conceited. The societal pressure eventually proves too much for him to live up to and he ends up faking his death, allowing Megamind and later Tighten to take over the city. It's also never outright stated if his decisions were justified or not, and instead, the film leaves the audience to decide which one is true. As he doesn't return in the climax to save the day and return to heroism, as that was Megamind disguising himself to pretend to be him.
- It's also worth noting that while most media with villain protagonists portray the heroes that oppose said protagonist as completely egocentric douchebags, this movie doesn't go the route. It does follow the trope partially, but it still shows the story from the side of said hero and makes them more complex.
- The same also goes for Metroman. While he's praised as the city's hero, it's clear that all he cares about is the fame and acclaim he gets for his heroic deeds, despite him generally coming off as polite and affable towards the citizens of Metro City (but even then, he doesn't view them as much more than random citizens, as demonstrated when he responds to a citizen shouting that he loved him with "And I love you too, random citizen!"). This is because, unlike Megamind who landed in prison, he arrived in the custody of a loving family where he ended up being spoiled and started only acting heroically for the sake of the notoriety that comes with it from a young age. Resulting in all of that notoriety and praise he earned from achieving heroic deeds going to his head and molding him into being incredibly arrogant and conceited. The societal pressure eventually proves too much for him to live up to and he ends up faking his death, allowing Megamind and later Tighten to take over the city. It's also never outright stated if his decisions were justified or not, and instead, the film leaves the audience to decide which one is true. As he doesn't return in the climax to save the day and return to heroism, as that was Megamind disguising himself to pretend to be him.
- Hal/Tighten and Roxanne are also surprisingly well-written characters.
- Hal represents what would happen if an obsessive crush who feels they're entitled to their love interest ended up getting powers. At first, he showed little to no concern about actually protecting Metro City and the only thing he genuinely seemed to care about was gaining Roxanne's affections. When he sees her kissing Bernard/Megamind, he turns into a straight-up villain and takes over the city.
- Roxanne is a very well-written love interest character for Megamind, as she's more lively and strong-willed than the typical movie Damsel-In-Distress character, along with the huge role she plays in Megamind's character development and transition from a criminal mastermind to the new hero of Metro City.
- Funny moments like Roxanne's request to have her "frequent kidnap victim card" stamped, Megamind (in disguise as Space Dad) giving Hal his superhero suit, Megamind and Roxanne investigating the school, Roxanne blowing a dangling spider into Megamind's eye and Minion trying to help by punching him in the face and stomping on his head and Tighten ripping the door off the invisible car with Megamind hiding by grabbing onto it, only for Tighten to notice Megamind on it through the door window (when it became visible).
- It averts the cliche of the main characters getting into a fight and one of them departing only for them to return in the climax by having Megamind pretend to be Metroman when facing off against Tighten. While this event isn't exactly "bad", it's still pretty cliched and can arguably make the film's story as a whole all the more predictable. But here, it at first seems like Metroman changed his mind about giving up heroism and came back to save the city and help Roxanne defeat Tighten. But then it's revealed that it was Megamind all along using a holographic disguise to take the form of Metroman.
- The emotional moments are impactful and downright tearjerking, like when Roxanne finds out Megamind had been lying to her the entire time (made all the more heartbreaking when you realize that Roxanne's influence had genuinely been helping Megamind become a better person and have more faith in himself to become what he truly desires to be rather than what society wanted him to be) and when Megamind turned himself into prison due to his inability to see himself as anything other than a villain when he's left alone to stop Tighten, believing it was out of the question because villainy was the only thing he felt that he could do in his life and Megamind and Minion falling out after Minion discovers that Megamind has been dating Roxanne and they have a fight, which results in Megamind insulting Minion, thus causing him to leave and makes Megamind feel lonelier than before.
- A funny running gag where Megamind mispronounces some words, the most notable example is when he mispronounces "hello" as "holo" during the scenes where Megamind answers the phone.
- A catchy soundtrack featuring Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe (his latter first DreamWorks film) contains copyrighted songs during montages like "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra (who would later feature in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and "I'm Bad" by the late Michael Jackson and each song fits into its scene. Especially considering how most of them fit the "villain song" mold (like the aforementioned "I'm Bad", but also songs like "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC, and "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood & The Destroyers). Even the orchestrated music for the film is good since it has a lo-fi sound that suits the film's superhero aesthetic and adds to the energetic nature of the soundtrack as a whole.
- The movie is peppered with cool references to various comics, politics, and films with plenty of humor.
- It deals with serious topics such as social prejudice, anxiety, mental health issues, loneliness, rejection, and depression adds to the more mature and realistic tone of the film, and gives the film a more adult feel that most animated movies lack at the time and makes the film enjoyable for both kids and adults, a massive accomplishment for an animated movie at the time.
- This is the first straight-up DreamWorks anti-hero movie. While it can be argued that this genre has already been done before in the studio's features with Shrek and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, this movie is easily the most obvious example of it when it comes to the DreamWorks movie catalog. Not to mention how it turned out to be one of the (if not the) only films of this sort from the studio to play said genre straight. As it wasn't a trend that they repeated very much after this film. Which makes this film stand out from the rest of the DreamWorks film catalog (make no mistake, many of DreamWorks' features are outstanding, but this one just has the traits that make it unique, something that not just all DreamWorks movies have, but also every animated feature in the catalog of their respective studios).
- The mid-credits scene is pretty funny. It shows that the real Bernard is rehydrated when Minion puts the suit that held his dehydrated form into the laundry. Minion offers to help him forget all the troubles he has been through and knocks him out with a Forget Me Stick. It also resolves the question of what happened to Bernard (yes, it wasn't exactly a "major question" in the film, but it was pretty cool to see it resolved after the movie ends with it being showcased in the middle of the credits).
- Heartwarming ending, as the crowd and entirety of Metro City cheers Megamind and declares him to be the hero of Metro City after he saved everyone from the dreaded reigns of Titan, and Megamind gets to reveal the brand new statue of him made in honor of his accomplishments, and everyone has a celebration (with Megamind, Roxanne and the Mayor having a little dance to the music) and it ends with Megamind carrying Roxanne and Roxy herself kissing Megamind on the cheek, making it one of the most wholesome endings in a DreamWorks movie ever.
- Its short film titled: Megamind: The Button of Doom is a great continuation of the film, along with the video game adaptation" Ultimate Showdown".
- Megamind's lines:
- "Things could be a lot worse."
- "OLLO!" (heard twice; one in the phone call the other one before draining Tighten's powers)
- "PRESENTATION!"
- "OW! MY GIANT BLUE HEAD!"
Utter Failure Qualities
- The designs for the human characters, while not straight-up uncanny, aren't nearly as stylized as the aliens like Megamind, Metroman, and Minion.
- The opening scene showing Megamind falling is a little confusing because later on it happens differently than established.
- The film suffered from very bad marketing that tried to portray it as being extremely hip and cool, and heavily ignored many of the film's highlights and instead focused more on the humor, which gave the film a bad image at the time and since Despicable Me came out months before Megamind did, it caused the movie to underperform at the box office and be ignored by DreamWorks at the time until it got a sequel in 2024 on Peacock with Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, which got negative reviews from fans and critics for ignoring numerous events from the first movie and flanderizing the character of Megamind to be more childish. Thankfully, a couple of years after the film was released, it gained a cult following and has become a classic amongst the animation community for its mature storytelling and well-written characters.
Reception
Megamind received generally positive reviews, praising its strong visuals and the cast's performances, but criticizing its unoriginality. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 73% based on 179 reviews and an average rating of 6.65/10. The site's consensus states the film "It regurgitates plot points from earlier animated efforts, and isn't quite as funny as it should be, but a top-shelf voice cast and strong visuals help make Megamind a pleasant, if unspectacular, diversion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave Megamind a grade of "A−" on a scale from A+ to F.
As time has passed over the decade, this film has received a better reception, and people have begun to realize how creative and subversive the movie is, something they couldn't see before since this movie was released shortly after Despicable Me.
Box Office
Megamind opened to $12.5 million on opening day, and earned $46 million over the three-day weekend, taking the No. 1 spot and averaging $11,668 from around 7,300 screens at 3,944 theaters. The opening was a bit higher than fellow DreamWorks Animation film How to Train Your Dragon, which earned $43.7 million back in March 2010. It was the fifth-highest opening for an animated feature in 2010. In its second weekend, it repeated at No. 1 and dropped 37% to $29.1 million for a $7,374 average from 3,949 theaters, bringing its 10-day cumulative total to $88.8 million. On its third weekend, it fell 45% to $16 million and finished second to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, averaging $4,237 from 3,779 theaters. Over Thanksgiving weekend, it held well with just a 22% drop to $12.6 million and slid to third place behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Tangled (it earned $17,304,307 over the five-day Thanksgiving period). Following Thanksgiving, the film fell a sharp 61% in its fifth weekend to $4.9 million and finished in sixth place.
Trivia
- The film's plot was based on the premise: "What if Lex Luthor defeated Superman?"
- Metro Man's appearance and costume were based on the late Elvis Presley.
- It was suggested that Ben Stiller would be cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey Jr. but Will Ferrell was ultimately given the role, due to "scheduling conflicts" for Downey, while Stiller ends up being cameo instead.
- It was supposed to be released in Japan on March 12, 2011, but because of the earthquake and tsunami a day before, the Japanese release was canceled.
- Several internet memes have been spawned from this movie, such as:
- Penis music
- "And I Love You Random Citizen!"
- Snotty boy/Tighten Glow-up memes
- "There is no Easter Bunny, there is no Tooth Fairy, and there is no Queen of England"
- "No Bitches?".
- "My death was greatly exaggerated"
- Megamind pressing the doorbell while in fish-eye camera.
- "PRESENTATION!"
- "OLLO!"
- The opening of the film, where Megamind is falling to his apparent death, was del Toro's idea.
- There was a movie theatre misscreening incident, where a theatre unexpectedly played ''Saw 3D'' instead of ''Megamind''. [citation needed]
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