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Megamind (also known as Mastermind) 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. The film received generally positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $321 million worldwide against it's $130 million budget.

Synopsis

Though he is the most-brilliant supervillain the world has known, Megamind is the least-successful. Thwarted time and again by heroic Metro Man, Megamind is more surprised than anyone when he actually 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.

Plot

Ever since they arrived on Earth as infants, supervillain Megamind has fought superhero Metro Man for dominance of Metro City. In his latest plan, Megamind and his sidekick Minion kidnap reporter Roxanne Ritchi and hold her hostage in a copper-lined observatory. When Metro Man arrives to save her, he reveals he is weakened by copper, and Megamind obliterates him with a death ray. Megamind finally takes control of the city, but his celebration is short-lived as without Metro Man to challenge him, he finds his life has no meaning.

While wandering the recently opened Metro Man Museum, Megamind sees Roxanne nearby, and uses his holographic disguise watch to take the form of Bernard, the museum's curator, whom he had "dehydrated" into a small cube. He talks to Roxanne and becomes attracted to her, and is inspired by one of her statements to create a new superhero for him to fight. Megamind returns to his lair and creates a serum containing Metro Man's DNA which he plans to inject into a proper candidate with his Defuser Gun. However, Roxanne's arrival at his lair with her dimwitted cameraman Hal Stewart causes Megamind to inadvertently inject Hal with the serum. Megamind disguises himself as Hal's "Space Dad" and convinces him to become the superhero "Titan". Titan spends several days training with his Space Dad before issuing a challenge to fight Megamind.

On the day before the fight, Megamind gets into an argument with Minion, and Titan tries and fails to woo Roxanne. Megamind, disguised as Bernard, takes Roxanne on a dinner date. Titan sees them, and as he had been infatuated with Roxanne, becomes upset and leaves. Shortly thereafter, Megamind's disguise fails, revealing his identity to Roxanne, who also storms off. The situation leaves him unable to find his invisible car, which is where he left the Defuser Gun he used to inject the serum into Hal.

Titan does not arrive at the scheduled fight, and Megamind finds that he has used his abilities for criminal purposes. As "Space Dad" and "Bernard" Megamind successfully convinces Titan to fight him as Titan realizes Megamind has used him and "taken" Roxanne from him. Titan engages in a super-powered fight with Megamind. However, when Titan wants to kill him instead of arrest him, Megamind lures Titan into a copper-lined trap, but he is unaffected and continues to fight. Megamind escapes from the battle and seeks out Roxanne, hoping she can help. She offers to take him to Metro Man's secret headquarters, where they are both surprised to find Metro Man alive. Metro Man faked his death and weakness to copper, as he had become tired of being a superhero and wanted to retire to become a music star. He declines to help, but offers Megamind the advice that a hero will always rise up to challenge evil.

Returning to the city, Megamind does not believe he can become the hero the city needs, and allows himself to be locked up in prison. Titan kidnaps Roxanne and demands Megamind show himself or he will kill her. Megamind has a change of heart and pleads with the prison warden, apologizing for his past actions. The warden reveals himself to be Minion in disguise, accepting Megamind's apology, and frees him so they can fight Hal.

As Hal is about to kill Roxanne, Megamind appears and frees her. The two escape, but Hal traps Megamind under rubble and threatens to kill him when Metro Man suddenly arrives, and Hal flees. Roxanne discovers that "Megamind" is really an injured Minion in disguise, while "Metro Man" is Megamind. Hal, in his flight, recognizes Megamind's distinctive mispronunciations, and realizes he was duped. Hal flies back and fights Megamind, during which Megamind finds his invisible car. He grabs the Defuser Gun and is able to extract the Metro Man serum from Titan, restoring him to normal. Now hailed as heroes, Megamind and Minion appear at the reopening of Metro Man's museum, now dedicated to Megamind instead, while Metro Man, in disguise within the crowd, silently congratulates his former rival.

In a mid-credits scene Minion is doing the laundry when a re-hydrated Bernard pops out of the washing machine.

Cast

See full cast at IMDB here

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 Schoolcraft and Brent Simons.

Music

Release

Reception

Megamind received positive reviews from most critics, with the film receiving 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 generally received favorable reviews.