Megamind

What if Lex Luthor actually defeated Superman? That is the question Dreamworks Animation sought to answer with Megamind, the studios’ satirical take on the superhero genre, back in late 2010. Unfortunately, the trailers didn’t do much to incentivize me to see it in theaters at the time, so I didn’t actually gain an interest in watching it until about recently about nine years after the initial release, when Megamind was suddenly in vogue for internet culture. While it’s not a perfect film, I now wonder why it took so long for me to see it.

Since their arrival on Earth as infants, Megamind (Will Ferrell) has continually battled Metro Man (Brad Pitt) for dominance over Metro City. One day, Megamind successfully kills Metro Man, allowing him to do as he pleases with the city. However, he soon finds that without someone to fight, his life has no meaning or purpose. He then gets the idea to create his own Metro Man so he can battle him forever, but his plan doesn’t go the way he expected.

Metro Man (Brad Pitt) is beloved by the citizens of Metro City.

The most immediate thing to address is that Megamind features a number of parallels to the Superman franchise. What first comes to mind is the shared backstory of Megamind and Metro Man, the last survivors of their planets placed in an escape pod headed for Earth, itself very similar to that of Superman (and Goku from Dragon Ball if you want to get pedantic). Then there are the roles that the core cast are meant to spoof. Megamind is meant to be Superman villains Lex Luthor and Brainiac, Metro Man is Superman, Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) is Lois Lane and Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill) is a counterpart to Jimmy Olsen, down to the red hair, though his name is derived from Hal Jordan and John Stewart from Green Lantern. Minion (David Cross) isn’t any one character in particular, but, as per his name, he does fit the role of a villain’s assistant. These similarities could arguably make Megamind, in essence, a Superman movie.

While the backbone of Megamind isn’t wholly original, the concepts that it plays around with generally are. These include having a supervillain as a protagonist, a villain actually achieving his goal and searching for his purpose in life and Superman deciding to use his powers for evil. As a contemporary viewer, I recognized similarities with other properties that came later, though those explored the concepts differently. The idea of the protagonist seeking a purpose after achieving their ultimate goal is the central premise of the anime/manga series One-Punch Man, though that deals with a superhero who wants an actual challenge after gaining the ability to defeat any monster with just one punch. Similarly, the idea of an evil Superman is the central premise of Brightburn (2019), but that film leans more heavily towards horror, as opposed to the more lighthearted tone of Megamind.

Megamind feels purposeless without someone to fight;
L-R: Megamind (Will Ferrell), Minion (David Cross).

The use of a supervillain as a protagonist, however, inevitably draws comparison to Despicable Me (2010), something that several critics brought up at the time largely in part because that film came out a mere four months before Megamind. While there are other surface-level parallels between the two films, including a generally comedic tone, an army of underlings and an assistant who develops superweapons, I would argue that they are still completely different movies due to their differences in plot. Where Despicable Me deals with themes of morality, acceptance and family, Megamind deals with themes of power, purpose and romance. These differences were perhaps ignored when both movies were fresh on everyone’s minds, but are ones I appreciated more with the passage of time.

With all that said, Megamind explored its central concepts fairly well for its 96-minute runtime, managing to put a few movies’ worth of ideas into a single film. There was perhaps room to go deeper, but for what’s there it’s as good as it could be.

As for the characters, I found them surprisingly well fleshed out. Megamind’s arc hits certain beats present in other movies, but he’s a villain who expresses feelings of self-doubt and seeks fulfillment both in creating a new hero to fight and trying to “get the girl” even though he’s not a hero. Without spoiling anything, Metro Man also has an interesting amount of depth and the story explores a concept that other Superman stories haven’t. What certainly helps these two are the respective performances by Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt, the former demonstrating that he has the capability of delivering a strong, emotional performance if he really wants to. The strong performances of the voice actors, including Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and David Cross, also contributes well to the humor of the film, which mixes witty and memorable dialogue with well-timed slapstick and a welcome lack of lowbrow humor.

Since this is a contemporary review, I feel the need to address Hal Stewart’s character. As a person, he’s rather creepy in how he approaches his feelings for Roxanne, to the point of feeling entitled, which is the entire point of his character and fuels his character arc in the latter half of the film. That being said, since his personality is the sort that has had a spotlight shone on it in recent years, his arc is one that seems more relevant now more than ever.

Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill; L) has a crush on Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey; R),
but is incapable of expressing it normally.

After nine years, the animation has also held up remarkably well. It’s fairly stylized, but well-detailed and the character designs are polished and distinct. The lighting is also done very well, as are the cloth and water physics. My only complaints, then are that Roxanne’s face might not fit in as well for some and that Hal’s design feels like a holdover from Dreamworks making their characters resemble their celebrity voice actors, a practice that they largely fell out of after Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Though not perfect, Megamind is an overlooked and underrated gem in Dreamworks’ catalog. The story is surprisingly original, the action and stylized animation have held up very well over the years and the characters are very well-written and acted. There are arguably better superhero films, or Dreamworks films in general, but I feel that Megamind has finally escaped Despicable Me’s shadow and is an experience worth checking out if you’re looking for something new within the superhero genre, if you’re a fan of animation or if you’re just looking for a good way to spend an hour-and-a-half.