Steve Carell, as family man and ex-super criminal Gru, returns for the fourth film in six film 'franchise', which includes two Minions films. This arrives with an increased roster of characters that includes Kristen Kiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Steve Cogan, Steven Colbert and Will Ferrel all fighting for screen time and attention and because of it the film ends up being just a series of funny scenes which don't all jell together.
The first Despicable Me was released in 2010 and proved to be a smash hit for Illumination the French animation company behind it. It was fresh, funny and gorgeous to look at thanks to some great design work from a truly talented bunch of artists and animators. 14 years later and it all just feels a little dull.
The film suffers from way too many characters, but not nearly enough Minions, it's also packed full of some incredibly old references to older films that won't even click with most of the parents of this era's new rugrats, I mean, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Terminator 2 - seriously you're referencing films that are 56 and 34 years old respectively?
The addition of Kristen Wiig was a good one, both thematically and comedically because Gru has always worked best as a man becoming a better person thanks to the pressures of having a family. This time, his three adopted daughters are joined by Gru junior, a baby who obviously hates his father.
What follows is a convoluted plot involving witness protection sub plot, an adversary for Gru from his childhood who holds a grudge as the main story, and then there's the arc involving four of the Minions who get transformed into superheroes, oh and then there's another storyline where Gru has to help the daughter of his neighbours commit a super-villain caper or risk getting exposed, then there's the story-line with the three main Minions and a vending machine, then there's the one where Gru's wife, Lucy becomes a hairdresser, then there's the arc with Gru and his son. Then there's the one with Gru's three daughters attending a Karate club, Look, there's a lot of story and not much in the way of laughs to go with it. And the trouble is, that what's good about the Despicable Me films gets completely lost in all this guff. I wanted more of the three adorable girls, but all I got was OTT action sequences with a little old lady in a rocket powered wheelchair, which I know sounds like fun, but really isn't.
Still it all looks very pretty, the production design is delightful and the sound track is fine, Gru and the other main characters are still fun, but I miss him being the main focus of the films. All in all, there's just too much stuff and not enough heart.
Basically, it's just more of the same and then some.
6/10
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