Minions: The Rise Of Gru

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Minions: The Rise Of Gru is the second Minions film and the fifth film in the Despicable Me series. In this prequel, we come to see how Gru worked with the minions to become one of the more noteworthy supervillains, even facing down his heroes: the Vicious Six. At long last I'm watching a Despicable Me film again and it feels like there is genuine thought put into the story and that it actually pays genuine homage to the stories that have come before it. What will strike you from the go is how interested this film is in inviting you back to the story in a unique manner. We get a brilliant introduction into the 70s era setting, followed by a thrilling look at the Vicious Six conducting a heist that will grant them insurmountable power. The whole sequence concludes with the main villain we've been following, Wil Knuckles, being betrayed by his teammates and left for dead; cutting to a James Bond opening number parody conducted by the Minions. It's a really funny but also compelling start to the feature for an audience member of any age and it sets the standard the film pretty consistently tries to meet throughout. This film actually found the goldmine for a prequel that the first Minions missed entirely, and that is the inclusion of a very young Gru. Seeing how Gru came to accept the Minions and actually take care of them is excellent foreshadowing to the three girls he adopts later in life. More than this we get to see him as an ambitious villain that does bad things in a way that makes you root for him, even befriending his idol: Wild Knuckles. The father/son relationship between Wild Knuckles and Gru is really important in setting up our young protagonist to be the villain with a code of honour that he grows up to become. The number of careful little links and nods back to fan favourite moments from throughout the franchise is very endearing and shows a lot of care was put into this script.

The animation for this film shows that Illumination has advanced at long last, you get good detail in the character models and how lighting is applied to an animated scene. I also found the score of the film to provide an upbeat adventurous tone that really suited the antics at hand. The soundtrack is a massive win that highlights a number of 70s era songs to set the scene and enhance the comedic effect. This is the first time in a long time that I've found the Minions performing well known songs to actually be funny.

 

Pierre Coffin, who voiced the Minions, found a way to make these things fun characters again; not only does Coffin display great comedic delivery but he really goes to an effort to pitch each key Minion he voices in a distinct way. Taraji P. Henson, who voiced Belle Bottom, is immediately as iconic as Jason Segel's Vector or Trey Parker's Balthazar Bratt; Henson has a commanding presence that makes her a villainous leader worth fearing. Michelle Yeoh, who voiced Master Chow, is the shining light in what is one of the weaker plotlines of the film; Yeoh hams up the wise martial arts master routine to nice comedic effect. Russell Brand, who voiced Dr. Nefario, is a very welcome return to the series; hearing the endearing way with which he takes Gru under his wing makes for a fantastic origin of how the pair first met. Alan Arkin, who voiced Wild Knuckles, is this gruff old supervillain who is fighting everyone who wants to betray him and phase him out; I loved seeing this character and Gru genuinely bond with one another and teach the other to do good for those they care about.

However, the best performance came from Steve Carell, who voiced Gru. The best part of a lot of these movies is hearing Carell's nasally supervillain voice warble out of the cinema speakers. But there's something even more fun at hearing him pitch that voice softer to give the impression of Gru as a kid. In this film we see Gru as more of an outcast figure who is immensely lonely and doing his level best to recognise his dream of being a villain. But either because there is no one there to help him or no one believes in him, he keeps coming up against barriers. But seeing this young protagonist show care for those who need it in spite of his villainous goals marks this depiction of Gru as one of the most likeable yet. It was great hearing the chemistry Carell and Arkin crafted together in painting a sort of father/son duo. I especially loved hearing Carell's eulogy for Wild Knuckles at the end of the feature, both a very heartfelt yet surprisingly funny scene.

The first act and a lot of the second act of this film really shine as a great animated feature, but somewhere along the way the same pitfalls the first Minions film and Despicable Me 3 had rear their head. These films can have a great plot but if they're running short or need to fill space? They chuck in an often aimless Minions sub-plot that never feels aligned to the main story. In this feature we have a Minion called Otto who always seems off on bumbling adventures that really take us away from the more interesting parts of the film. Yet worse than that, we have Kevin, Stuart and Bob trying to rescue Gru by undergoing kung fu training extremely late in the feature. This entire story seems like a whole separate thing to what we had otherwise been watching thus far, and watching three Minions learn kung fu for twenty minutes never really justified itself. In fact the way their training was incorporated into the final fight made the third act come off as being a little rushed.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lungren, Lucy Lawless and Danny Trejo, who voiced Jean Clawed, Svengeance, Nunchuk and Stronghold respectively, are collectively such extreme wastes of phenomenal talent; none of these characters get more screen time than a goon would despite their prominent role in the film.

I haven't enjoyed a film in the Despicable Me franchise this much since the first one. I would give Minions: The Rise Of Gru a 7/10.