 This video has kindly been sponsored by Likewise. If you've never heard of Likewise before, it's an app that recommends books, TV shows, and movies based on the ones that you already like. I already spend too much time searching for things to watch, even though I like to spend my time actually watching things. I know that feeling when you've just finished a good book or a movie and you feel empty inside, craving that same experience. Powered by a combination of smart technology and recommendations from real people, the Likewise app will give you the best recommendations possible, and you can even set these recommendations to be daily recs. All you have to do is tell the app the genres and titles that you enjoy, and Likewise gives you personalized recommendations. You can even save all of your favorites so that you never forget what you've watched. This watchlist feature is one of my favorite features of the app. Another really cool feature is the Today card. Like I said, there are daily recs, and the Today card lets you swipe through a bunch of different recommendations. Like Tinder, but for movies and shows. I recently added a bunch of movies that I've watched, and Likewise recommended me to watch Shiva Baby, and it did not disappoint at all. What a great film. Look, this app is really cool, and it's helpful. It's also completely free, so if you are interested in Likewise, you can click the link in the description to download it. So thank you to Likewise for sponsoring this video. With the superhero genre more popular than ever, I find it crazy to think that Megamind came out 12 years ago. It's a movie that's tailor made for Today in a few ways, from its subversion to the genre to its uncanny villain, Titan. I want to look at the contrast between Megamind and Metro Man, and hone in on why the portrayal of Titan worked so well. Megamind explores good versus evil through Megamind himself's simplistic idea of morality. To him, it's very clear, very binary. It's black and white. It's Metro Man or Megamind. Good or evil. But as the film unfolds, we see what it has to say about these ideas, and the characters that embody them. To compare and contrast Megamind and Metro Man, the 5 minute introduction to this film tells us almost everything we need to know about the two aliens, and telling us why they are the way that they are. For Megamind, from the moment his parents told him that he was destined for something, Destiny has had an iron grip on his life. For him, Destiny is a big part of his chosen morality, and society is the second part of that. The timeless debate about nature and nurture rules Megamind's character. Nature versus nurture rules Metro Man as well. Having been raised in a prison, Megamind's ideas of good and bad were always different, but this environment didn't cause him to become evil. In fact, it seemed to be the opposite. Megamind was showered with love, attention, and care by all the prisoners, and with that he developed the capacity to help others, as he helps the prisoners break free. In school, Megamind wants to make friends, and he tries to impress his classmates by making popcorn, just like Metro Man. He wants to be selected for games, just like the other kids. He wants to be a normal kid, but the world has never let him be normal. He's blue, bald, and has a massive head. These kids, the prison, the warden have already decided Megamind's fate for him, based on his upbringing, and the way he looks. He never had a chance. As a child, Megamind was already calling himself evil. When the only home he knows is prison, and the only clothes he wears aside from his evil costume is an orange jumpsuit, this makes a lot of sense. Metro Man on the other hand is the palatable alien, tailor made for society, white, a full head of hair, and a large chin that's considered nice. Unlike Megamind, he never truly does show that he wants to do good, or even that he wants friendship, but it's given to him. But because he's good looking and has visibly useful powers, Metro Man is afforded the gift of not only being normal, but being adored, and he simply takes advantage of the things that he is afforded. Though Megamind did nothing wrong in burning the popcorn, Metro Man gets praised for putting Megamind in the corner. From that moment, he was seen as a hero by his peers, and he acted accordingly. Metro Man has had the fame, the attention, the spotlight since the day he arrived in Metro City, almost as if it was his destiny. But how breaks this mold? And he is the person and the warning sign to Megamind that the world doesn't exist in black and white, and his house true self is revealed, Metro Man's is as well, when he faked his death. But Metro Man isn't suddenly evil because he didn't want to be a hero anymore. He's just tired. From the day he landed in Metro City, his purpose has been carved out for him, and he was happy to fit in, until he decided to look inwards and realize that he wasn't truly happy. Is it selfish to become music man in the middle of a villain terrorizing Metro City? Of course. But not evil. Hal exists as the one true evil in this movie, because when he is given power, he begins to act on what he believes he is owed. Attention from the girl. Megamind is a movie that subverts any and all expectations, and that includes its primary antagonist Hal, the unassuming villain. One of the reasons why Hal is a great villain is because of that very subversion that this film brights itself on. If we take Spider-Man for example, who is probably the most popular superhero right now, the one idea that is so clear in this story is that anybody can wear the mask, anybody can be a hero, and of course with power comes responsibility. But Megamind demonstrates a remarkably realistic idea that anybody can be a villain as well. I watched this movie for the first time just a few weeks ago, and I paid very little attention to Hal. He is the run of the mill typical nice guy. He tries to say all the right things to try and attract Roxanne and she is uninterested in him. And these are moments that seem harmless. Hal seems harmless. But when you look at these moments more intently, they show us exactly who Hal is. In our introduction to him, he turns her back on her to make a speech about how if he was Metro Man, he wouldn't let her get kidnapped, and that he'd have an eye on her at all times. Which leads her to get kidnapped. On the day after Metro Man's death, after their news report, the first thing Hal does is ask Roxanne out. He knows that she really admires Metro Man and looks up to him. The day before during Metro Man Day, she is the one who writes that his heart is an ocean that's inside a bigger ocean. She herself wrote those words about a man who clearly inspires her. Hal might not have any accomplishments, but he isn't dumb. He was smart enough to realize Mega Mind was Metro Man by the way he said metrosity. He knows that she's been through a traumatic experience when he feels threatened by Bernard and his and Roxanne's relationship. He's smart enough to pick up on subtleties like that, but when it comes to understanding why Roxanne didn't like him, and accepting that idea, he is unable. Hal doesn't actually care about her. He's in love with the idea of being with her, and the affirmation that this relationship would give him about himself. When Mega Mind and Minion get to Hal's apartment, that has pizza boxes, leftover pizza, and coffee on the ground, whose shelves are held up by cinder blocks and whose TV is mounted up on top of a large speaker, the signs are there. He rats out his own neighbor when he believes he's about to get robbed. He wears bite me, game over, and air 404 t-shirts. Not to say these shirts are bad, but Hal has a certain image, an image that is trending towards a certain group of people who hate women. It's important to stress that it's an image that seems harmless, and when he gets these powers, he lives up to that image. One of the first things he does upon mastering these abilities is use his ex-revision to stare into Roxanne's home, and to watch her. Because Hal, like others, believes that she and Metroman were a thing, Hal acts on that, saying that he must need to save her a few times, as if she's so shallow that that's all it takes for her to fall in love. And when Roxanne rejects him for the final time, he responds by saying that she is supposed to be with him. Hal feels entitled to her, he even later tells Megamind that he stole his girlfriend. He tells the world that Roxanne ferociously ripped out his heart. Hal believes that because he knows everything about her, which he doesn't, he doesn't even know which flowers she likes, because he's been nice to her, because he is a nice guy, and now because he has muscles and powers, having Roxanne is his right, that he is deserving of her, in a sense he believes that it is his destiny. This idea becomes even more interesting when we compare and contrast the way Megamind treated Roxanne, versus the way Hal does. Even when Megamind was playing the role of the villain to Metroman, Roxanne was never in real danger, nor did she ever feel like she was. But when Hal announces himself as Titan, there's real fear in her eyes, because she now sees the real Hal, even if she doesn't want to believe it. Secondly, as Bernard, Megamind made real efforts to learn who Roxanne was. Past the Superficials like work, Megamind learned that Roxanne is a truly good person, who now wants to fight against evil, against Megamind. He cleans up the entire city to impress her, he does things that she likes. Megamind is empathetic and emotional, and that's her type. He is everything that Hal isn't. Her type is good people. Even when Roxanne rejects Megamind, he accepts it. He's remorseful even, when he's venting to the warden in the prison. When Roxanne rejects Hal, he abducts her, and is one of the reasons why he ultimately turns evil. He clearly says that he was only in the gig to get the girl, and when he couldn't have her, he turns to villainy. Hal never once treated Roxanne like an actual person. To him, she was just a trophy, an accessory that he could flaunt, and one that could pleasure him. Nothing more. Upon being given power, he quickly used his abilities to forcefully try and take what he thought he deserved. And because he was so unassuming, so harmless, so easy to look past, I think that's what makes him a great villain. Because we never realize it until it's too late. Megamind and Metraman go on to prove that fate, destiny, is to be dictated by one's self and not by the world around us. That you can be whoever, whatever you want to be. Megamind proves that love, admiration, companionship isn't a fixed idea. The good guy never got the girl, and nor did he ever want her. The nice guy who believed he was owed the girl didn't get her. Megamind did, because he cared for her and for his city, because he wanted to be a good person. Megamind was truly a kind person, a hero, and that's why Roxanne chose him.