I’ve now seen this movie a second time. I liked it the first time I saw it, and had fond memories of the movie. I don’t remember where I was the first time I watched it, though I don’t think I saw it in theaters. Regardless, it was years ago.

I just watched it again this last week with my niblings. I’m unsettled.

Megamind is a good, fun movie. Mostly. It’s so painfully close to just being a good fun movie, and it still can be if I only empathize with the main character Megamind. That’s probably what I did the first time I watched this.

This time around, I saw things from Roxanne Ritchi’s perspective. In so doing, I realized that Megamind is a horror movie. Now I can’t un-see it.

Is that a bad thing? Well…

The real problem with the ways in which Megamind is a horror story is that it has no satisfying on-screen resolution to the horror. To dig into that though, I think we need to go back. Yes, that means *SPOILERS*.

If you stick to the narrow perspective of the main character, Megamind, this movie is a fun romp filled with dramatic tension and a little bit of personal growth. There’s no horror at all. Sticking to that narrow perspective is strongly supported by the movie’s presentation. Megamind is our narrative focal point, and while he’s called a villain he’s clearly meant to be both sympathetic and our protagonist.

The story’s timeline starts with Megamind’s rivalry with Metro Man, almost literally from birth. Megamind is immediately cast as the sympathetic and misunderstood underdog. He eventually embraces his role as a villain, but it seems to happen more out of a sense of duty, or a need to fulfill the role he sees being pressed upon him, rather than out of any personal ambition to be particularly villainous. The movie assures us: Megamind’s not a bad guy, he’s just playing the bad guy. He plays the villain because he believes that is what has been asked of him—and, like the nerd that he is, he studies the role carefully and tries to do a good job of it.

To Megamind, doing a good job of being a villain involves a lot of harebrained schemes, witty banter, damsel-kidnapping, and inevitable defeat at the hands of the hero. For the most part, this is fine. Yes, even the damsel-kidnapping. The damsel-kidnapping starts this movie on its weirdly horrific course, but it didn’t have to make the movie a horror story from Roxanne’s perspective.

First, Megamind regularly kidnaps the reporter Roxanne Ritchi. It’s clear that she’s this movie’s Lois Lane analogue, with Metro Man as the Superman stand-in. It also seems pretty clear that everyone besides Roxanne and Metro Man think the two of them are a couple. 

Second, Roxanne has developed a certain unfazed comfortable nonchalance with Megamind’s routine kidnapping of her. She’s seen all the death-machines. She laughs at his attempts to frighten her. While I have no doubt that some of Roxanne’s comfort derives from Metro Man’s regular rescues, it honestly seems like she knows that Megamind craves getting a reaction out of her, and that he doesn’t want to actually hurt her. At least, that’s the message I get from that first scene where Megamind tries again and again to scare Roxanne, changing tactics to find an emotional impact rather than actually inflicting harm.

Basically, Roxanne and Megamind’s relationship at the start of the movie seems like a kinky power dynamic played for comedy, with Roxanne topping from the bottom. I thought it was pretty funny. At the very least, it’s a good starting point. It’s refreshingly different from most other villainous kidnapping narratives.

Unfortunately (more *SPOILERS* coming up) that promise is squandered in a long grinding “ooof”. Megamind and Roxanne start with this fun topping-from-the-bottom repartee. Yet as the movie continues and the inevitable romance / de-villainization plot progresses, we’re treated to a classic trope delivered in a way that has aged terribly; Megamind realizes he likes Roxanne, and then pretends to be someone else in order to woo her. Her realization that this lovely suitor is actually Megamind clearly frightens and disturbs her, and she flees.

So far, so bad. It could be salvaged at this point.

Instead, it gets worse! The movie’s true villain (“Tighten,” according to the subtitles) is Roxanne’s creeper of a cameraman. He gives off obsessed stalker vibes from his very first scene. It feels clear that only his lack of opportunity and power has kept him from doing something worse than being a creeper who can’t hear ‘no’. Yet his banal form of real villainy is presented as a joke, something that makes him laughable right up until his frustration with Megamind’s manipulation (and wooing of Roxanne) pushes him over the edge to kidnap Roxanne himself.

At this point, if I’ve only empathized with Megamind the whole way through, there’s a wonderful moment of slight character growth followed by a bit of heroism. It is fun, it’s well written, it’s good, I love it. Megamind is a good movie, case closed.

But if I’ve empathized with Roxanne, I’m left with this: the villain who routinely kidnapped me, who wooed me while lying to me, who gave powers to my creepy cameraman (the same one who’s been trying to get me alone and do lord knows what for ages), who created the whole problem that has put me in such danger, who’s shown precious little ability to grow or admit fault or fix his mistakes… he’s now my only hope. If I want to get out of this alive, I have to pray that he’s going to save me. This is bad.

This is what desperation feels like.

Now, whatever else it is, Megamind is a kids’ superhero movie. Megamind saves the day, Tighten is defeated, Roxanne is saved, Metro City celebrates Megamind’s heroic turn… it’s all good! Victory and a dance-music outro for all!

But there’s no moment where Megamind apologizes to Roxanne for any of it. Nor is there much in the way of a recognition from Megamind that maybe he might owe Roxanne an apology. At least, there wasn’t anything that landed that particular plot thread for me. The horror of Roxanne’s experience in this movie feels unresolved. Despite this, we end with her kissing Megamind on the cheek and then dancing with him into the credits. That end of her emotional arc felt jarring.

As long as I don’t pay attention to Roxanne’s side of things, the movie is a joyride full of laughs. If I do pay attention to Roxanne’s side of things, the movie is a joyride full of laughs that keeps making me wince and cringe and feel worse about empathizing with the main character. It’s not great.

The real tragedy is that the movie could have been great. It could have not done those things.

It could have kept Roxanne’s arc as-is and resolved it by giving Megamind a bigger moment of realization and character growth at the end of the movie… but I actually think that option is a bad one, because it changes Megamind’s underlying characterization so starkly. Part of what makes him funny is his staunch inability to reflect on his own failings.

Instead, I think the movie should have leaned into Roxanne’s surety in the face of Megamind’s repeated kidnappings. It’s the same emotional note that we start their relationship on. Sure, we open the movie thinking her confidence comes from her trust in Metro Man coming to rescue her, but what if that transformed into a confidence that she has a better read on Megamind than Megamind realizes? What if she has a better understanding of him than he has of himself?

Early in the film the audience sees a disguised Megamind saving Roxanne from a bomb he placed. It’s the same disguise he wears while wooing her later. What if Roxanne saw something out of place when she was saved from the bomb, and realized that something was amiss? What if this plucky reporter realized that her suitor was up to something, realized he was Megamind… and fell for him anyway? We, the audience, have already been convinced that he’s not a bad guy (or, well, not an evil guy). We could probably believe Roxanne coming to the same conclusion before Megamind does.

So many other plot elements can remain the same. Roxanne can still feel upset and betrayed when Megamind’s disguise slips during their date—perhaps because he panics and snubs her, or falls back on old habits and tries for a half-hearted kidnapping instead of admitting that his feelings are real. Roxanne can still be angry and afraid, because Megamind isn’t willing to actually admit who he is and still try to woo her, which throws his whole attempt at wooing her into question. It means that Roxanne’s final plea to Megamind to save her, when she’s ultimately kidnapped by Tighten, can include her knowing who Megamind was all along despite his disguise, and be a plea for him to admit who he is and what he wants—to admit that he can be a hero, that he doesn’t have to be stuck as a villain.

This doesn’t require Megamind to apologize (which isn’t in keeping with his character), it just lets him become more right than he had been (which really seems like it’s Megamind’s schtick). Notably, this also means that Roxanne goes from the awfulness of being the subject of gaslighting fake-romance to being the one who knows what’s actually happening—and agreeing to go along with the playacting anyway. That feels like the perfect continuation of her opening interactions with Megamind during her kidnapping.

Would this be the best version of the movie? Probably not. It feels similar to other villain-redeemed-by-love stories, but I think that’s inevitable. Would it be better? Yes. I think so.

This small improvement could resolve the horror story of Roxanne’s narrative arc. This doesn’t resolve the utter lack of female characters beyond Roxanne. While I don’t believe that the Bechdel test is the be-all end-all of movie measuring sticks, this movie fails the Bechdel test so badly that it’s embarrassing. At least the above change would let us feel like the movie’s one female character was making her own choices instead of being trapped in a horror show.

Look, Megamind has moments of delight. It is well written in so many ways. I wouldn’t be so set on hunting for a fix here if I didn’t think the movie merited it. Megamind is so close to being so much better, but it doesn’t help that the movie came out in 2010. A lot has changed, culturally speaking.

Also, I understand that movies are made by teams, and that those teams don’t necessarily get final say over their creations. Maybe some earlier version of Megamind solved these problems, maybe the solution was present in the final draft but was cut for time or because of studio meddling or for who knows what reason. Sadly, the problem exists in the final version.

So do I recommend the movie?

Yeah… ish. It’s good, generally. But the awfulness of Roxanne’s narrative is rough to experience, and if that’s the narrative you empathize with you’re going to be frustrated with the movie.

You’re aware of the movie’s pitfalls now. Maybe with those in mind you can watch Megamind and enjoy it. Or maybe you can appreciate the craft involved while you come up with different narrative fixes than the ones I found.