God, how I hate the minions! Sure, they were amusing for a bit in the first Despicable Me movie. But now I only find the little, yellow blobs to be annoying. Very annoying. And in Despicable Me 4 they turn the annoyance meter all the way up. And I do realize that I am not the target market for this movie, but I saw it so I'm going to have my say.
This time around, the movie feels like a bunch of animated shorts that were stretched out and then strung together. I can’t help but think that they did start out as shorts, but someone figured out that there was more money in feature length, and here we are. It’s time to print money.
Although there are a several subplots, the movie breaks down into 2 components. First, most of the minions have gone to work for the Anti-Villain League where 5 of them have been subjected to genetic modification (a fun concept for kids) and turned into mega minions. This means they now have superpowers making them look different enough to boost toy sales.
The second component has Gru and family entering witness protection as he is being targeted by an old nemesis named Maxime. Maxime is important to the plot as he has an army of cockroaches and that should also help boost toy sales. Gru and family have a couple sales opportunities - I mean, minions - with them as well, and mark my words, minion stuck in a vending machine will be on shelves in toy stores soon. Otherwise, it’s a lot of the same things you’ve seen before; a barrage of sight gags that begin to feel repetitive very quickly. But younger kids will probably enjoy that.
To be honest, I’m not sure why they make Despicable Me movies anymore. Everything is about the minions, and I would think making a movie just about them would save the cost of hiring people like Steve Carrel, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell. Or maybe it becomes too obvious that it’s a cash grab and making another Despicable Me sequel at least provides the appearance that someone is attempting to make a movie. But it’s about the minions and little else at this point.
I did give this a 1-star rating as the animation is good, as is the voice acting. And, admittedly, there are a couple minor laughs. Plus, ‘wished I were dead’ is not really a rating, but make no mistake, that’s how I felt. But maybe I am in the minority here. There was actual applause when the movie ended at the showing I attended. And it wasn’t a bunch of little kids. I’d like to think that the applause was for the movie ending and not being subjected to this any longer. But I suspect people really enjoyed it, and that makes me weep for humanity.
As the movie is nothing more than a bunch of slapstick gags, little kids will probably enjoy this. For older audiences, maybe if you’ve lost faith in humanity this will be a nice way to reaffirm your negative views. And I get it, the movie is for kids. But there are lots of movies made for kids that are enjoyable for adults. This just isn't one, in my opinion. Obviously, there are some who will like this more than I do. I can’t stand the minions though and I’m likely to be negative about any movie that includes them. Plus, the song ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ may be ruined for me now, and that’s just unforgiveable.
Have you seen Despicable Me 4? Are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.