The studio realized that much of the success of the first
film came from the adorable, scene stealing sidekicks to Gru (Steve Carell)
called the Minions. The tiny, fuzzy, yellow, intelligible creatures are given
even more screen time than the last outing, and it’s a decision that isn’t
entirely ill chosen. The Minions remain to be the funniest and most adorable
aspects of the film, even if the film does lean a little too heavily on them.
Some of this material doesn’t land, but the film also uses them in
unexpectedly new ways that honestly the film could have used more of.
After the last film, what story is there left to tell about
Gru? There really isn’t much. It’s cute to see Gru fumble in his attempts to raise
his adopted daughters. But there’s only so much story to be mined from this,
and the writers seem to know this. A plot is added at the center that turns Gru
into a spy working for the government, attempting to take down a villain. Then
Gru falls for the partner assigned to help him and the romantic subplot is used to
show a surprisingly vulnerable side to the character.
Despite that there’s little reason to tell more story here
and despite how very jumbled the storytelling is, the film remains to be fun. I
laughed a lot (and that’s saying a lot from me – I’m a robot). The film
disappointingly lacks the depth of the first film, and this sequel is far less
emotional and cleverly told. But as a kid sitting in the row ahead of me shouted as
the Minions appeared on screen, “This is the funny part!” And there enough of those moments,
funny, fun and sweet, that it largely doesn’t matter that this isn’t as strong
of an outing. This is some fine animation and some solid family friendly entertainment
Grade: B-
Grade: B-
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