Despicable Me 4
Rating: 2.5/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
The Despicable Me franchise is the real star of Illumination, serving the role that films like Toy Story does for Pixar. Kids have grown up with this franchise for years now, with numerous sequels and spinoffs being produced starring these characters. While Illumination has gone on to produce other high-grossing animated box office hits, they find themselves returning to Gru and his minions. While I think the first two films are quite good, we are now on the sixth film of this franchise, with promises of more coming after this one. After watching 2024's Despicable Me 4, it just helps prove my point that this franchise just needs to fizzle out already; there is nothing special or very fun in this film, and seemingly just serves as a cash grab.
The film opens with Gru (Steve Carrell) thwarting one of his school enemies, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), arresting him on behalf of the Anti-Villains League. He is able to put him away, even though Maxime unexpectedly escapes days later and threatens the life of Gru and his family, consisting of his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan), and new family addition, baby Gru Jr. Now terrified of being targeted, the AVL sends Gru and his family to a remote location, hiding them until the whole Maxime drama blows over. When they get to the new town though, the family had a hard time making new friends, and Gru is being recruited by Poppy Prescott (Joey King), a middle schooler who is an aspiring villain.
This movie simply falls into the routine that the other films have set up, allowing these characters to galavant around the plot, with crude humor and tender moments of love and appreciation for one another. The minions are of course the funniest part of this film, and they have some good moments (albeit few and far between) throughout this movie; this is probably the least funny out of all the films in the franchise (bedside the last Minions movie, which I think was a complete disaster). At the same time, Gru and his family are sort of fun throughout the film, but incredibly unmemorable. They don't do a lot, which is reflective of the story as a whole. I found myself bored throughout most of this movie, and praying they have some sort of new idea to inject into this plot. This doesn't factor in for Baby Gru Jr. though, as I thought he was very adorable and fun this entire movie.
At the same time though, there is simply too much going on. They have all these characters and their own side plots, even though none of them are quite interesting. We have Lucy trying to be a hairstylist (which goes absolutely nowhere but just to waste around five minutes of screen time), Gru trying to fit in, Maxime hunting down Gru, the minions at the AVL headquarters, etc. There is so much convoluting the plot, and it's all things we have seen before. Nothing is special or fun, and even the main antagonist plot line is rather dumb and unnecessary.
They finally craft an enjoyable subplot towards the end of the film, where Gru and his new, teenage boss breaking into Gru's old school to steal the pet mascot of sorts. This is easily the best segment of the film, and the part where I found myself enjoying what was going on and intrigued in what was going to happen next. Although it was quite short and ended rather quickly, I think this part saved the film from the boring mess it could have been. It makes me wonder if the filmmakers working on these films failed by making Gru a good guy. Sure, he could have been great to his daughters, but why couldn't he also be pulling off villain quests at the same time? While I think the second film is good in terms of how they showed a different side of Gru, I think they milked this storyline for him for too long and needed to bring in something to rejuvenate the franchise and his character, as a whole. Unfortunately, this sort of serves as a little hint of what we could have, and it doesn't give the viewer (if they feel how I do) exactly what they want.
Another memorable moment from this movie I want to highlight involves this new band of "super" minions. They are definitely parodying the Marvel and DC superheroes and the multiple films that have been released through the last decade, and it sort of works for the most part. The best part of this though is when the minions try to save people around the city. Each one of them messes something up, which is quite funny due to how they blow their one big chance. Each time seems like something that could happen in a Marvel film if their superheroes were as dimwitted as the little yellow guys here, and I think they provide some commentary on superhero-fatigue that many fans are experiencing today.
Another good thing I could give this film is how it is done quite well on a technical level. The animation and the chase/fight sequences are crafted pretty well, and shows how the filmmakers have evolved over time in this regard. While the film's story may be dull and uninspired, the animation and the crafting of an animated film are simply not. It is a nice to film to look at, but that's simply not enough to save this movie that honestly shouldn't have been made.
This franchise is another example of one that goes on for way too long and doesn't know when to quit. The stories and the characters were great for the first couple of films, but then goes on to meander their way through each film, knowing audiences are going to pay to see their next adventures. This film serves only as a cash grab, in my opinion, and only serves as a source of mild enjoyment for the audience. Yes, the children are going to have fun with this film and giggle their whole way through it, but this is one of those films that the adults are going to strongly dislike having to sit through.
Comments
Post a Comment