If there were any franchise that could hold its own against the Pixar prequel Monsters University it would be Gru and his minions in Despicable Me 2. The sequel has the former villain, voiced by Steve Carell, teaming up with the Anti-Villain League’s Lucy Wild (Kristin Wiig) to find and stop a global threat. In the meantime he must balance taking care of his three adopted daughters and fending off the neighborhood moms bent on finding him a date. It actually doesn’t seem that hard since he has an army of little yellow minions who do everything from babysitting to mechanical work.
The overall plot is a bit predictable as Gru’s life has become mundane since he quit being a super villain. But there is a level of humor that occurs throughout with how he has kept his evil touches even though he has reformed his personality. His evil lab is now producing jelly, his gadgets serve secondary purposes during a princess birthday party and his evil mansion still sticks out in an average neighborhood. It works for both children and adults watching. The movie is funny.
In the first film I wasn’t completely sold on the minions as a comedic plot device. But their expanded role in this second film and the fact that some have been given individual distinctions as supporting characters has raised their stock. This is most certainly because of the upcoming minion spin-off film, but even so, they’re funny and one of the more successful aspects of the film. Despicable Me 2 replaces the freshness of the original film with more predictable, cookie cutter animated elements. I get the sense that Universal and Illumination Entertainment could probably bust out a new Despicable Me film every year with how this film ends. To be honest though, at this point I don’t really see that as a bad thing.
Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.
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