Like Shrek and Ice Age, Despicable Me has entered the phase where the sequels never live up to the original.
The first film wasn’t great but made-up with the amount of heart that went into Gru’s bond with his adopted daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes. An aspiring villain who originally planned to use them for his plot to steal the moon, unexpectedly grows to care for them and makes the choice to leave villainy behind and be a father. Steve Carrell’s vocal performance as Gru makes the role his own and likable as the movie explored more into his character. The antagonist in the first film was also a formidable advisory and the minions in their feature debut were both lovable and funny before they became an enormous franchise and more annoying than endearing. While Despicable Me 2 fixed a couple of problems of its predecessor, giving Kristen Wiig a better role as Lucy who would become Gru’s future wife to name a few, the end result ended up being a forgettable flick but still provided a sweet closure. And don’t get me started on Minions movie the less I talk about that the better.
The first film wasn’t great but made-up with the amount of heart that went into Gru’s bond with his adopted daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes. An aspiring villain who originally planned to use them for his plot to steal the moon, unexpectedly grows to care for them and makes the choice to leave villainy behind and be a father. Steve Carrell’s vocal performance as Gru makes the role his own and likable as the movie explored more into his character. The antagonist in the first film was also a formidable advisory and the minions in their feature debut were both lovable and funny before they became an enormous franchise and more annoying than endearing. While Despicable Me 2 fixed a couple of problems of its predecessor, giving Kristen Wiig a better role as Lucy who would become Gru’s future wife to name a few, the end result ended up being a forgettable flick but still provided a sweet closure. And don’t get me started on Minions movie the less I talk about that the better.
When I heard that the third installment would about Gru discovering that he has a twin brother named Drew, the idea failed to impress that I thought nothing would make this story interesting. Then it was announced that Trey Parker, one of the creators of South Park and voice of Cartman himself among other characters would be playing the new villain Balthazar Bratt, did the excitement meter began to rise with the first trailer. Alas, it was to good to last as the later trailers and promos began to worry me on the direction the movie was heading. Now that I’ve seen the movie, those fears have been realized.
I have literally nothing to say about Despicable Me 3, because nothing really happens! From the plot and characters it all goes nowhere with many of the problems that I had with the franchise emerge in full bloom. As I just mentioned, with the exception of Gru and Bratt all the characters either serve no purpose or are lazily written that their side of the story is pointless and goes nowhere. Some of the characters just show up for a few scenes and disappear without explanation, a problem that has nagged me since the first movie.
The main story involves Gru meeting his long lost twin brother Drew (also voiced by Carrell but more irritating) while battling Balthazar Bratt, a former child star actor of the eighties who becomes a supervillain like in his TV show with plans of taking over the world and getting revenge on Hollywood for canceling his show. I wanted to see more of Gru going up against Bratt than spend time on the twin brother plot but but if I was being honest with myself I just wanted to see this movie mostly to see Trey Parker doing something that wasn’t South Park related. In fact, if it was another actor and not Parker in the role I’d probably not even cared about seeing the movie in the first place.
The millions of subplots are insignificant from the new head of the Anti-Villain League, Lucy trying to be a mother, trying to bond with Margo, and Agnes trying to find a unicorn. Almost forgot to mention the minions but even they seem to be fed up as they we see less of them in the movie. They leave Gru and do their usual antics but as I said their presence doesn’t leave much of an impact on the plot like the rest of the subplots I've mentioned. It infuriates me because I know that something can be done with these characters with a better script, I’m not asking for something at a Pixar level but come on, it’s got to be better than what we’ve gotten. Much of the charm is starting to fade from Wiig going over-the-top goofy as Lucy and overplaying Agnes's cuteness that its no longer funny or cute. Like Cars 2 there’s some message that is played for kids that gets muddled in execution but nothing is really learned at the end of the day.
But in the end who cares, kids are going to laugh and cry with every over-the-op stupidity that happens on screen and pay parents will pay millions for more material like this. I'm all for some stupid humor but even that has a right way of being done right, this ain't one of them.
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