3. Megamind
Megamind is a film that wasn’t a failure by any means when it came out but ended up feeling like a film that deserved more than what it got anyway. What this film did when it came out and what it had to say at the time it came out had it feeling like a film that was a bit ahead of its time.
It coming out the same year as Despicable Me didn’t do it any favors at all. I was one of those kids who ended up seeing both of these films in theaters but apparently a lot of other people didn’t. Despite Despicable Me still, to this day, being the best movie Illumination has ever made, it paled in comparison to Megamind.
Despicable Me is about a bad guy adopting some children and becoming good. Megamind isn’t about a bad guy turning good. It’s about someone who was destined to be a good guy but chose to be bad because the world he grew up in refused to allow him to be good.
Megamind (Will Ferrell) and his arch nemesis Metro Man (Brad Pitt) have the same origin story. They both hailed from planets that were exploding at the same time and ended up on the same new planet. Megamind ended up inside of a prison and was raised there by fucking inmates to be bad. Though, what's interesting is that, throughout his backstory as a child he never expresses any desire to be bad, just to be accepted.
He only chooses to be bad because of the awful treatment everyone around him subjected him to. It was deemed the way of the world he fell into. Metro Man was the handsome and strong Superman allegory so of course it would end up this way right? What’s even more funny to me is how Metro Man didn’t really grow up like Superman. Instead of landing in a humble farm house in Kansas he landed in some rich dude’s huge mansion. It’s no wonder he became arrogant but it speaks a lot towards his character that he never became what Hal becomes. That doesn’t exactly make him a great person but I do think it makes him a good one. It certainly makes him an interesting one.
This movie’s underlying thing is playing with superhero tropes, to be sure, but it’s not as surface level as taking the villain and making him good. The damsel isn’t really a damsel in this film. Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) is a pretty competent reporter. She fits the mold of the Lois Lane type character here but instead of always screaming or being “in distress” she’s not afraid of Megamind at all. The scenario these three find themselves in is a put-upon act, one that none of them were even aware of until the faithful day that saw Metro Man faking his death.
The reason Roxanne isn’t afraid of Megamind is because she KNOWS he’s not going to hurt her. She just knows this. She feels it inside, even if she doesn’t particularly think he’s a good person. Tearing down the walls that get her to like him happens through less than desirable means but it does go towards illustrating just how insane this fight against fate for them all really is.
Minion (David Cross) is Megamind’s minion and he’s an absolute delight throughout the film. He doesn’t really play into a trope that gets twisted on its head or anything. The two of them are more best friends disguised as the boss and underling type. Their dynamic doesn’t have Megamind treating him like shit and the one time he does in a way that wounds his soul, it’s treated like a comedic break-up rather than anything abusive.
Truly, you need to be a good person to have the kind of gifts that Megamind and Metro Man have and not take control of everything. Megamind’s conflict in this film when Metro Man “dies” stems from a lack of identity. The only thing he had in life was the game he played with Metro Man and that’s because it gave him purpose. His purpose isn’t to be evil so the act of being evil without an excuse to do so does nothing for him.
On the flip side of that coin you have Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill), Roxanne’s co-worker and camera guy who ends up being the initially unwilling subject in Megamind’s plan to recreate a new hero after Metro Man is gone. Hal is one of those “nice guy” types. He’s someone who is extremely pushy and can’t really take no for an answer.
When you watch this film as a kid it’s probably easy to feel sorry for him. After all, he’s pathetic. He acts like a child and it seems as though all he wants is for this girl to love him back the way he loves her. Watching it as an adult paints him in the intended light however. He’s not pinning after her because he’s in love. He feels like he’s owed something from her. She’s not interested in him and therefore it’s her fault when his advances lead to him feeling miserable about himself.
He’ll claim to know everything about her but in the same scene also claim to not know what flowers she likes and act like he didn’t immediately say anything contradictory. When fed a line from Megamind about how heroes work, he takes Roxanne out on the town and almost gets her killed multiple times only to save her at the last moment. Saving her life equals getting the girl right? But it doesn’t.
When it doesn’t, he gives up and starts stealing goods and ATM machines full of money. He’s not a good person and the superhero gig was just seen as a shortcut to get the girl. When he couldn’t get the girl he decided he was going to terrorize the city because who's going to stop him?
The power itself isn’t evil. All the power did was give Hal an excuse to truly be who he wanted to be. It’s a scary thought but it really does bring home how great it is that Megamind coming into his own led him towards being the city’s hero and protector.
There’s full essays that could be written about how well this film handles these troupes and what it has to say about the genre it’s paying homage to. It really is a phenomenal work of art on top of just being really fucking funny.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen this movie so the fact that I STILL get taken off guard during the scene where he decides to blow up the Metro Man statue because there's too many painful memories associated with it during a genuinely emotional scene beforehand is incredible. I admire films that have parts to it that I always love reacting to and seeing other people react to.
I can’t recommend it enough. If there’s one saving grace about living in the world where Despicable Me was more successful than Megamind it’s that Megamind thankfully never got ruined via an endless line of less and less creative sequels.
(You can tell I wrote this before Megamind Vs. The Doom Syndicate and Megamind Rules were announced...)
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27 Apr 2025 02:28 CEST
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