The Greatest Subversive Animated Film of the Decade

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2019)

Before your eyes scroll through this, eliminate every thought you had of me being credible. Lying to you about being an avid movie watcher or comic reader isn't necessary. This movie is amazing to anyone and thus I will review it from the perspective of the random high-schooler I am.
The movie Megamind is a very well done exploration and subversion of genre tropes culminating in a beautiful movie that holds up to this day and beyond. The hero loses; The incompetent villain takes over; The love interest is for the villain; Cats and dogs living together, it's mass hysteria! Nothing makes me want to deep dive into movies more than surface level subversions, because in good movies always lead to more and more subversion hidden just under the surface to make the story work reasonably. Sometimes the subversion isn't even clear until much later such as with the supposed weakness of Metro Man to copper and his slightly more reasonable aversion to deadly laser weapons. This movie works very hard to make sure you know its subversive and it does one hell of a good job at it.
The story of this movie all starts with the violent ejection of two babies from two planets that proceed to explode. They become rivals immediately. Both land on earth, the blue bulbous-headed Megamind lands in a prison, and the beautiful super baby that grows into Metro Man lands in a mansion. Both grow up going to the same school where their rivalry buds once again. The movie picks up later with Megamind's escape from prison and crashing of the Metro Man Museum opening, as well as Megamind's new plot to finally end Metro Man. The clearly poorly thought out plot involves luring Metro Man to an abandoned observatory and firing a deadly laser cannon into him. Ironically Metro Man reveals his weakness to copper (the material the observatory dome is made of), and thus Megamind actually wins.
I love this movie because right from the start it throws your ideas about what a superhero film should be out the window and shows you this movie will be different, and that is prevalent throughout the film. Many classic character motivations are examined more closely and revealed to be shallow or so self serving they are harmful to those around them. Such as when Megamind's motivation for getting rid of Metro Man gets called into question as he starts falling into depression after taking over Metro City or when the (super)villain Tighten kidnaps Roxanne Ritchie, or pretty much anything he does in general throughout the movie.
The subversive nature of this movie doesn't go all the way to it's core though. The story of the villain winning has become a trope in and of itself now, and the story of a villain going after a more harmful villain has also been seen before. However, Megamind twists and changes these basic story arcs and turns them into a brilliantly unique, wonderfully fun, and simply delightful movie that everyone ages 5+ should watch.