Megamind (film)

Megamind
Directed by	Tom McGrath
Produced by	Lara Breay Denise Nolan Cascino
Written by	Alan J. Schoolcraft Brent Simons
Music by	Hans Zimmer Lorne Balfe
Production company(s)	DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 28, 2010 (Russia) November 5, 2010 (United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Rating	PG
Budget	$130 Million

“It's big for a reason.”

―Tagline (referring to MegaMind's head)

Megamind (first known as Mastermind and then Übermind) is Dreamworks Animation's twenty-first film.

The film received generally positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $321 million worldwide against it's $130 million budget.

Plot

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent alien who — at only eight days old — is sent to Earth by his parents as his home planet is destroyed by a black hole. However, he lands in the Prison for the Criminally Gifted at Metro City, thanks to another infant alien similarly sent from a different planet who eventually becomes a superhero known as Metro Man (Brad Pitt), defender of the fictional Metro City. As a result, whilst Metro Man is a gifted celebrity, Megamind is a neglected outcast, due to his destructive intellect, with his piranha-like sidekick Minion (David Cross) as his only friend. Realizing that he is only gifted in causing trouble, and jealous of all of the attention and praise young Metro Man receives, Megamind becomes a supervillain to rival Metro Man, though he is thwarted on a regular basis.

During one of his many attempts to defeat Metro Man, Megamind kidnaps news reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) and uses her as bait to lure Metro Man into the city observatory where Megamind intends to kill him with a death ray. The plan appears flawed enough for Metro Man to escape, but he proclaims that the inside of the observatory is lined with copper, which he says drains his power. Metro Man is then seemingly killed by the death-ray. Megamind is initially thrilled that he has defeated his archenemy, and he proceeds to live the criminal dream life, taking over town hall and plundering the city. However, he soon grows depressed over the fact that without someone to fight, his life as a supervillain no longer has any purpose.

Megamind runs into a museum curator named Bernard (Ben Stiller) while destroying the Metro Man Museum and, trying to avoid Roxanne, disguises himself as him, dehydrating the real Bernard. Roxanne inadvertently inspires him to create a new superhero to fight, which he does using a serum of Metro Man's DNA. Hoping to uncover any evil plans Megamind has for the city, Roxanne breaks into Megamind's lair and fights with him over a syringe gun containing the serum, which is accidentally fired and injected into Roxanne's cameraman Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill). Megamind manipulates Hal into becoming a superhero named Tighten under the guise of being his "space dad", but at the same time falls in love with Roxanne and begins dating her while disguised as Bernard-even sharing some of his own past (although still disguised) with her. Tighten attempts to use his powers to woo Roxanne (thinking that a "hero" always gets the girl), but is quickly spurned by Roxanne- who has learned of Megamind's plans to make a new hero- and grows jealous of Bernard/ Megamind. Megamind soon begins having second thoughts about being a villain, finding more enjoyment pursuing a relationship with Roxanne. Minion discovers this relationship and quarrels with Megamind over it, claiming that "the bad guy doesn't get the girl!" Frustrated, Megamind then yells that he doesn't want to be the "bad guy" anymore. He tells Minion to go and that he doesn't need him, causing their long friendship to appear irreparably lost.

After Roxanne kisses "Bernard" on a date, Megamind's identity is accidentally exposed, causing Roxanne (who cannot reconcile his true emotional nature with his past evil deeds) to reject him. Heartbroken, Megamind follows through with his plan to fight Tighten. He prepares a large battle mech, puts on an elaborate cape -called "The Black Mamba"- Minion made for him before their quarrel, and makes a grand appearance in the town plaza. He ends up spending most of the day there waiting for Tighten to show up, before going to his apartment. By this time, Tighten has decided he would rather be a supervillain. Disgusted, Megamind provokes Tighten by revealing he is both the "space dad" and Bernard. Utterly furious at the fact that Megamind was the "intellectual dweeb" who got Roxanne's affections, Hal attacks with a vengeance, however unlike Metro Man, has no qualms with outright killing Megamind, and Megamind is forced to flee for his life. Hal then starts destroying Metro City in revenge for Roxanne spurning him and bottled-up resentment from a lifetime of rejection.

During the battle, Megamind attacked Tighten with a copper sphere, but is shocked to see Tighten escape it with ease. Confused and shocked about this inconsistency, Megamind convinces Roxanne to search for clues about his weaknesses in Metro Man's old hideout-which turns out to be the school where both Metro Man and Megamind went as children. There, they discover that Metro Man is still alive and learn that he faked his death (and his weakness to copper) so that he could retire from being a superhero. He does this after realizing that he'd lived his entire life based on what people expected of him, never making a choice about what he really wanted-which is to be a musician. Megamind and Roxanne try to persuade Metro Man to defeat Tighten, but he refuses. Roxanne and Metro Man instead prompt Megamind to fight, but he refuses, still believing himself unworthy of assuming the hero role, and leaves to turn himself in to the prison that was his home since childhood. However, when Tighten kidnaps Roxanne, Megamind appeals to the warden to let him go to save her. When the warden adamantly refuses, Megamind acknowledges his distrust but pleads for the chance to spare Roxanne from his enemy's hate. The warden, in a surprise twist, reveals himself to be Minion, who has returned to support his friend upon seeing his true nature. The two set off for the final battle. At this time, Tighten reveals via camera that he intends to destroy Metro Tower with Roxanne tied to its pinnacle to destroy the memory of her rejection forever. Despite her attempts to bring out the remaining good in Hal, he makes it clear that he has no regrets about his hatred: "You see the good in everybody, even when it's not there."

Minion, disguised as Megamind, rescues Roxanne but breaks his fish bowl head in the process losing water gasping for breath. Metro Man then miraculously shows up, but is actually Megamind in disguise. He manages to intimidate Tighten into fleeing the city, until he accidentally calls Metro City "Metrocity" (Megamind mispronounces simple words as he has no real contact with the outside world). After a beating from Tighten and getting flung into the air with the Defuser Gun (apparently to his death) which leads back to the first scene, Megamind defeats him by using his Dehydration gun to safely land in a fountain in Metro City's main square, and uses the Defuser Gun to remove Hal's unearned powers just before he can incinerate Roxanne. Minion is almost dead, but still lives when Megamind carefully throws him in the fountain. Hal ends up in Megamind's former prison cell, while Megamind is embraced by Metro City as its new defender. Roxanne accepts Megamind. Megamind decides he is deeply satisfied with his new role as the hero, as a disguised Metro Man silently congratulates him.

A post-credits scene shows Minion doing the laundry, only for Bernard - who was "de-hydrated" by one of Megamind's weapons and turned into a small cube — to pop out of the washing machine claiming that this was the worst day of his life; Minion then responds and whacks him with a forget-me-stick.

Voice cast

• Will Ferrell as Megamind, a reformed supervillain
• David Cross as Minion, Megamind's best friend
• Tina Fey as Roxanne Ritchi, Megamind's love interest
• Brad Pitt as Metro Man, Megamind's rival and former hero of Metro City.
• Jonah Hill as Hal Stewart / Tighten, Roxanne Ritchi's former cameraman.
• Andrew Seago as Random Citizen
• J. K. Simmons as Warden
• Ben Stiller as Bernard (real)
• Justin Theroux as Megamind's Father
• Christopher Knights as Prision Guard
• Tom McGrath as Lord Scott / Prison Guard
• Jack Blessing as Newscaster
• Jessica Benia as Megamind's Mother
• Joey Dinitere as Baby Megamind
• Noah Diniere as Baby Metro Man

Production

The film was first titled Master Mind and then Oobermind. Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino were the film's producers, and Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were the executive producers. Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey, Jr., but Will Ferrell was given the role, due to "scheduling conflicts" for Downey. The film was written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons.

Reception

Megamind received good reviews from most critics, with the film garnering a 73% "fresh" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 100 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. Critics on Metacritic gave the film a Metascore of 63/100, stating that it recieved generally favorable reviews..

External links

• Megamind at Wikipedia a, the free encyclopedia

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