Minions: The Rise of Gru
Director: Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val
Writer: Matthew Fogel, Brian Lynch
Starring: Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, Julie Andrews, Russell Brand, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Lucy Lawless, Jimmy O. Yang, Kevin Michael Richardson, John DiMaggio, RZA, Will Arnett, Steve Coogan (Jeez this movie has a bunch of celebrities in five-line roles)
Reason for watching: Gotta stick with this Despicable Me/Minions franchise. It’s so new. I think it’s going places.
Number of times I’ve watched it: First time viewing
***
Sometimes a franchise continues to stick around and put out new movies years after it has peaked financially and critically. More than likely, it has probably died on the vine and has nothing left to offer us as an audience of consumers. But producers think the sequels will continue to be successful because…let’s be honest…creativity is at an all-time low in this industry and no one gives tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to a new project unless there’s previously existing intellectual property attached. Many franchises go this way. Warner Brothers could not leave the Wizarding world alone after they rant out Harry Potter books, so they turned to other material to make the Fantastic Beasts movies. Have you seen them? The last two of those movies are garbage fires. The Fast and the Furious peaked with Furious 7, but they’re about to make their ninth and tenth movies. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be losing a step post-Avengers: Endgame with their new stories seeming wayward.
So it is no surprise we keep getting films from the Despicable Me franchise. AND SOMEHOW THESE MOVIES ARE STILL GOOD!! Can the minions be annoying? Sure. Are they still a prime example of how kid’s humor can still be funny without going for poop jokes all the time? Yes. Is the slapstick comedy still hilarious every time? Absolutely. I could see a minion get punted like a football or used as tank shells against a castle and still find it funny. And Steve Carrel refuses to just be adequate. He does hilarious voice work and works his butt off here to make Gru just as fun and enjoyable as he was when we first met him in 2010.
Okay. There is an actual plot to Minions: The Rise of Gru. It is not just the Minions babbling in pseudo-Spanish and hitting each other with hammers (although that does happen a lot). Young Gru (Steve Carell) wants to impress the Vicious Six, a group of dastardly criminals, and join their team as they have an opening. Although he is rejected by them and their leader Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Gru manages to steal a precious artifact from them, which gets them to give chase and try to capture him. However, due to some mishandling by minion Otto (Pierre Coffin, who voices all the minions to some extent), Gru and the rest of his minions must find the artifact again before the Vicious Six use it to grant themselves enough power to take over the world. Along the way, they will get help from past-his-prime villain Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), Kung Fu master Chow (Michelle Yeoh), and a young Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand).
I could sing Steve Carell’s praises all day with this role and what he’s done to keep this franchise going for years. I will keep it limited here though. What impresses me here is how easily he slides into the Gru voice and makes it sound prepubescent. The voice coming out of Gru is definitely Carell’s, but it so easily sounds like a 12-year-old villainous child. Newcomer to the franchise Henson gets second prize for me. She oozes a confidence and charm as Belle Bottom that she makes all the old Despicable Me villains look like that piece of crap elf from Thor: Dark World. She fits right into the over-the-top world of Gru and his minions. Arkin is a welcome addition as. His classic sourpuss attitude adds another great personality to the cast. As usual, Coffin has an amazing amount of energy as the minions. Him being able to channel the different personalities of the individual henchmen we meet is a credit to his range as well.
As mentioned earlier, the humor here is mostly physical in nature with the aforementioned little yellow men abusing themselves for our enjoyment. Sure I would not encourage that behavior in the same children this movie is being marketed to, but seeing them use each as blunt force objects in fights brings me a chuckle. There are a few clever puns or jokes here and there. That kind of humor is more of Pixar or Dreamwork’s thing in my opinion.
Speaking of Pixar, this movie is lacking in creating that endearing protagonist with heart who can connect with. Sure Gru is a decent lead, but this is the fourth full movies following him now. The boys at Disney can make a compelling hero inside 10 minutes. Just go watch Up again. I think Minions problem lies in the fact that there were too many subplots going on in this movie. For one part of it, we are following Gru and his meeting with Knuckles. Then we follow the Minions who are trying to keep up with him. Then we flash over to the Vicious Six and their quests for ultimate power. It gets hard to connect with someone when we are only with them for a few minutes at time and are then bounced to the next subplot.
Don’t let me take this movie down though. It is a good time for the kids, and parents (who aren’t totally sick of minons by now) should be fine with it.
7/10
Until I see another one.