Illumination might not be the best studio for animated films in terms of critics response and quality, however, it’s the one studio that most of the kids make sure to show up at the theater to watch their latest films, Despicable Me is an example of a franchise that doesn’t count with many high quality films but that still manage to captivate audiences (mostly younger) with its charismatic characters and dynamical humor that end up satisfying both kids and some adults. We’re heading to the 6th movie of the Despicable Me franchise, after 3 sequels and 2 spinoffs, does this franchise still need more? This movie does not prove that we need more of this franchise, but at the same time, it shows that another installment is not as harmful as it could be…
Gru encounters a new (maybe not that new) adversary, Maxime Le Mal, along with his girlfriend Valentina, forcing the family to go into hiding. Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member, Gru Jr., who is determined to cause trouble for his dad.
It’s funny how this franchise tries to innovate in the laziest way possible. In the second film we got evil minions, in the third film we got prisoner minions, and now, we have super hero minions (aka Mega Minions)! I wonder what’s to come next? Mutant minions? Oh wait, we already got that in Minions: The Rise Of Gru! It’s just funny the way they manage to keep the goofy trend with these characters. Despicable Me 4 is totally not a bad film, might be one of the best films that the franchise has to offer, the humor is great, characters are still as memorable as I remember and the story is decent. The story might bother some as it’s very different than all of the other films from this franchise, for the good and for the bad. Sometimes it truly reminded me of what we seen in The Incredibles 2 from Pixar, many aspects in this story reminds me of this film and it’s not great as it feels really unoriginal at some times.
And once again, I must say that the minions might be the best thing about the film, even though it felt like we could’ve had more of them, there was so many funny scenes that had me genuinely laughing and the ending itself is really great! The idea of creating these Mega Minions was also a great one and I felt like all of them had their time to shine on screen. But honestly, seeing Will Ferrell playing a French villain might be my favorite thing about this film, his scenes with Gru are the best and he might be my second favorite villain Gru has confronted, staying only behind Vector (obviously).
One of this film’s biggest mistakes is not aging Gru’s kids, it’s about time for us to see the girls grow up and I have no idea why they keep it this way, these girls look exactly the same since the first film, wearing basically the same outfits, I just think it’d be great to see them aging and facing teenager life challenges but apparently Illumination ain’t ready for that.
The film manages to entertain you and deliver funny scenes, even though the story might not be the best, it’s a solid entry for this franchise that feels like should’ve been over a long time ago… Even with great soundtrack and some enjoyable scenes, Despicable Me 4 is mostly a tiring film that brings more of the same to a franchise that should’ve ended a long time ago, there are many things they could’ve explored but they always choose the laziest path to take. You will leave entertained, however, you will be disappointed by how messy this story can get.
Despicable Me 4 releases in theaters on July 3.
