Call me a conspiracy theorist, a radical, or a lunatic with a sharp tongue – but I’m always euphoric when I notice a (probably unintentional, but ‘ya never know) Illuminati and Bible connection in an unexpected place – namely in the realm of cinema. Such was the case with Tom McGrath’s (who directed the two “Madagascar” films) latest, “Megamind,” an animated spoof of the superhero sub-genre, which stars Will Ferrell in the lead, as the eponymous big-headed protagonist, who slightly resembles an anorexic smurf.
But before I reveal my theory (which contains a whole lotta Revelations), here’s some contextual information: Megamind has always been less fortunate than his rival, Metro Man (Brad Pitt). Coincidentally both of them are launched from an alien planet onto Earth, following some-sort of cataclysmic event, however, Metro Man lands in a mansion and Megamind, in a prison, where he learns the ways of the evil-doer and discovers his knack for destroying things. But when they are both sent to the same school, as older children, Metro Man is praised and Megamind is sent to “time out.” At last, Megamind snaps and decides to become the baddest honcho ever to walk the Earth.
Fast forward a couple of years and Metro Man has his own city dedicated to him, Metro City, which displays a faux-Atlas type statue centerfold. Of course, Megamind is not happy and thus decides to lure Metro Man into another one of his ridiculous ploys at domination. But surprisingly, Megamind, unknowingly corners Metro Man, by accidentally exposing him to copper, which has the same effect as kryptonite to Superman. With that, Megamind uses a death ray to kill Metro Man.
However, years of complete freedom, which have accumulated tons of money for the super-villain and tons of damage to the city, have taken their toll. Without the great smile and fabulous comb-over of Metro Man, Megamind is bored. He comes up with the simple solution of creating a rival by taking a bit of Metro Man’s genetics and implanting them into someone capable. But things don’t work out as planned, and Metro Man’s powers are mistakenly injected into Tighten (Jonah Hill), a small-time cameraman who has a crush for television personality Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), who also happened to be Megamind’s usual hostage when it came to baiting Metro Man. Tighten evolves in Titan (I’m sure you’ve probably realized the word-play by now), but once again, things don’t go according to plan, and Titan becomes an uncontrollable enemy of the city; Megamind is forced to slip into Metro Man’s shoes and play the role of the savior.
So my theory is as follows: Megamind represents the Anti-Christ and Metro Man is symbolic of Jesus. Before I elaborate, let me just specify two things: fairly early in the film, Megamind takes the form of a young man, which he transforms into whenever he meets Roxanne, who turns out to be his love-interest. Secondly, the idea of Heaven is thrown in pretty blatantly. In fact, Minion (David Cross) — as the name suggests, he is Megamind’s right-hand man — tells his boss that his parents are looking down from “alien Heaven.” Now the reason that I found a connection to the Bible with Metro Man is because of one scene where a woman kisses his feet. Within seconds of this particular biblical reference, Metro Man walks on water. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but as I’ll explain later, “Megamind” is a chore to watch, and this certain conspiracy made the film somewhat more entertaining for me. Lastly, he is defeated with copper, which looking back at Revelation 1:15, is mentioned by comparing Jesus’ feet to “fine copper when glowing in a furnace.” As a last bit of information, all of this happens during a public conference in which Metro Man publicly speaks about the fact that he has saved people from treacherous perils.
Then there’s Megamind, who follows the disappearance of Christ . . . I mean, Metro Man, resurfaces using a disguise and gains the trust of others. Is it possible that Megamind is representative of the Anti-Christ himself? I say, maybe, but then again, I’m no expert, however, I have seen a plethora of History channel documentaries on the topic and I can safely say that it is fabled that the Anti-Christ will rise in times of great need, rally support, and then reveal his true nature after the fruits of his labor have continued on the destruction. Wait a minute . . . that seems an awful lot like the film.
But in the end, this is all just rhetorical mumbo-jumbo that paraded my mind during my screening of the Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simmons penned film because there are quite literally, no characters that are of any sort of interesting – including Megamind and Metro Man, who are way too ego-maniacal for their own well-being. Roxanne is bland and hard to relate to and Titan is just hair-pullingly annoying. On top of that, the script, which already fails on delivering proper characterization, also has some of the worst dialogue in any animated picture that I have ever seen. At times, it just made me want to jump out of my seat and scream.
Voice-acting is also amateurish. Will Ferrell, which thankfully doesn’t reveal his ugly mug anywhere in the picture, does some of the worst voice-acting that I have heard in a long time. Brad Pitt is nearly unrecognizable in his role as Metro Man. However, just like Megamind, the quality of the performance is comparable to that of a Saturday morning cartoon, which in essence, is what the film ultimately amounts to. But at least the aforementioned tried; Tina Fey and Jonah Hill are the weakest links, at times sounding like they’re reading straight from the script.
There are some things that the film does have going for it, namely the computer-generated images. “Megamind” has a playful cartoonish vibe to it, which I appreciated, and its last action sequence, though predictable (as with much of the film), is quite enthralling. Another great aspect of the film is its soundtrack, which has everything from Michael Jackson to Ozzy Osbourne.
“You’re so predictable,” Roxanne tells Megamind fairly early in the film. I found myself saying the same thing after just 10 minutes with this DreamWorks stinker.
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Follow Mariusz Zubrowski on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ItsJustMariusz.
Great review! Ya know? The trailer didn’t grab me. I’d rather watch The Incredibles again.
Normally, I’d agree that an opinion can’t be wrong but this time, it is. It was a great movie. I see some parallels to the Bible but not in the way you did and it surely isn’t part of some conspiracy. And *SPOILER ALERT* the inclusion if where megamind actually does save people in the end, does not coincide with your weird theory. And also, he doesn’t say “alien heaven” he says “evil heaven”.
saw it yesterday and the idea stuck with me all day. minion is a fish head but body manly — ok — the god of the philistines fish and man dagon an image also of the anti-christ. NO COINCIDENCE THE MOVIE IS PROMOTING SOME IDEA
When a man’s ego speaks it speaks through the code of his past pressumptions and beliefs. Minion represents the ego, he was given to take care of Megamind, this is why they say code when talking to each other and also why they sound ridiculous. Yes, Megamind represents the fallen man, or Anti-Love, who is comfortable behind the bars his mind has built, not knowing he’s in prison, caring more about himself than others. The ego sits comfortably in his cold, damp lair, until the reporter(reason, Roxanne) comes and asks the hard questions, which makes Megamind think she wants to discover his secrets, which weren’t carefully guarded in the first place. As reason teaches fallen man, he is inspired by true love and decides he doesn’t want to be bad anymore and puts his selfish ego aside for awhile. As he does this, Megamind creates a ruthless villain that is set on destroying him. In the middle of this, searching for a helpful hint, fallen mind and reason search for the seemingly dead hero’s cave, and finds out that his death was greatly exaggerated, that Metroman(God) only faked his death so that a different hero would rise up. In the end, Megamind(fallen mind) is transformed into a hero, and is clothed with a white robe and gets the girl(Love). Many people ask why the world isn’t perfect, its because we want a challenge, we don’t want it to be easy, we don’t want victory to be given to us on a silver platter. This is why we choose to live human lives, because the sweet never tastes so sweet as after the sour. This is why the world presently looks so dark, for now is the time for the greatest light to rise in the hearts of men. As warmth seems heaven sent after sitting in the winter cold, so freedom seems a priceless treasure after many years of bondage.