Despicable Me 4
Despicable Me 4
Kind of all over the place for me, were the two “Despicable Me 4” movies that I have seen so far, especially for a franchise that has been more or less consistent in its style of PG animated humor. I loathed the first one, loved the second one, thought the first “Minions” spinoff had it moments, felt like the third installment was just repeating itself and was pleasantly surprised by the second “Minions.” In numerical terms it is fourth from original and sixth overall. Regrettably this is towards the bottom end of things as far as I am concerned. This did not depress me for days about what’s happening to family entertainment like The Secret Life Of Pets 2 did but it might be even worse than that.
With Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) coming back as his arch-nemesis from high school, reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carell; his Eastern-European accent grating as ever) finds himself at cross-purposes with his old buddy. But like seriously what is cooler than a high school where people who wish to become supervillains will be going? As for prequels which this series seems to enjoy doing, maybe they could try having one there. Gru manages to have Maxime thrown into prison with him and other Anti-Villain League members but he escapes vowing revenge against Gru and his family particularly their new baby.
The family goes into hiding when all of them get subplots where they each try to start anew life in a wealthy district under different names. Lucy (Kristen Wiig), Gru’s wife tries this out herself by becoming a hairdresser with catastrophic results. Edith (Dana Gaier), middle daughter protects Agnes (Madison Polan) during karate practice. Margot (Miranda Cosgrove), oldest daughter…says about three sentences throughout the entire movie. Gru tries to endear himself to his snobby neighbor (Steven Colbert), but he finds himself being blackmailed into doing a heist with the neighbor’s daughter and aspiring villain, Poppy (Joey King). The movie could have had a more positive message by having Gru teach Poppy that a life of villainy is not the way to go, but no, she’s validated and wants to be a supervillain as much as ever by the film’s end.
The Minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) get their own subplot when some of them are given superpowers by AVL boss Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan). I didn’t really enjoy this part because they were already not humans and they had no physical limitations, so giving them superpowers would just look like sideways movement to me. For example one of them gets the power to stretch. Well another Minion gets stuffed into a vending machine for the whole duration of the movie without any superpowers whatsoever. Even though it appeared like Minions were fairly elastic to begin with.
Practically all verbal jokes are at best simply bad, and painful on top. I am not sure if they thought that letting Carell and Ferrell (or Carell/Colbert) share a scene here could just have made the material better through their previous chemistry in other projects. There was a kind of precedent for this, as Carell had great chemistry with his long-time associate Alan Arkin which did elevate “Minions” but it wasn’t so here. It is not a satisfying reunion between Ron Burgandy and Brick Tamland. The film also does not make use of the potentiality for a Gru/Megamind crossover despite the fact both characters featured 2010 animated films about villainous figures changing their lives.
There is nothing about “Despicable Me 4” to make me really angry, plus its animation remains as springy and enjoyable as ever before. Also, I found the new baby very cute and visual physical gags tickled me quite alright. A wheelchair with monster truck tires got me chuckling, okay. However, it is clear that little attention went into making the script, while characters and storylines are underdeveloped even by my low standards for this series. Although I highly doubt that this movie will put off any fans of the “Despicable Me 4 ”/”Minions” franchise, I kind of doubt it can win over anyone who wasn’t already a fan either way.
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- Genre: Action, Animes Movies, Comedy, Family, Featured, Popular Movies, Top Rated Movies, Upcoming Movies
- Country: United States
- Director: Chris Renaud
- Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Sofía Vergara, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Polan, Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Steve Coogan, Stephen Colbert, Chloe Fineman, Joey King, Laraine Newman
