DESPICABLE ME 3 Review

The Despicable Me franchise has officially reached that point in its life where it doesn’t have any idea where to go next and so it begins digging into the main characters past to try and come up with characters to fill in roles they have yet to address. You’ve seen it before in countless films whether it be something along the lines of Austin Powers in Goldmember or even something as wacky as the Fast & Furious franchise that can’t help but to keep bringing people back and connecting them in unforeseen ways. With the inevitable Despicable Me 3 the folks over at Illumination animation have decided to take this route and approach their film as if Gru (again voiced by Steve Carell) fell into something of a Parent Trap situation, but the two never ended up going to summer camp together. Instead, it is after the passing of their father that his long-lost twin brother, Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell), contacts the newly married and newly heroic Gru in order to connect and maybe try to pull him back into his old ways of villainy. It’s a fine enough device, I guess, and it mostly works because Carell’s voice work is so amusing in how he slightly differentiates the two and then has to subsequently voice both Gru and Dru doing impressions of one another in what is arguably the most entertaining and genuinely funny scene in the movie. If any other scene in the film had a hint of the kinds of layers or even this kind of wacky creativity in the sense of trying to accomplish something due only to the fact it presents an interesting challenge then the film as a whole might have in fact been more interesting, but as it is Despicable Me 3 is more of the same, but busier. Busier in that it wants you and the children you’re presumably taking to the theater to think there is a ton of stuff happening on screen when in reality all you’re seeing is a collection of disparate scenes strung together by the standard objective of attempting to steal the biggest jewel in the world. That said, Despicable Me 3 doesn’t really have to be anything more than what it is as it is just funny enough and just consistently colorful enough to feel like the shiny new product it needs to be in order to please the masses who will spend their hard-earned money on it.

New Trailer for DESPICABLE ME 3

Despicable Me 3 will likely be the biggest earning film of the summer movie season and today Universal and Illumination have released the second trailer for the film. While I never expected in the summer of 2010 while watching the genuinely fun and inventive Despicable Me that it would become one of the biggest animated franchises of its day here we sit seven years later and four films in as not only has Gru (Steve Carell) and his minions received two sequels, but his minions themselves have had their own movie. After the underwhelming sequel though and rather bad Minions spin-off my expectation for anything noteworthy to come out of this franchise has significantly decreased. Sure, there are still a few funny bits in this second trailer it seems to be a totally different third installment than what the previous trailer pitched. Whereas the clip released in December highlighted Gru coming up against a new villain Balthazar Bratt (voiced by Trey Parker) this new trailer solely focuses on the reveal that Gru somehow has a twin brother we've never heard about and that there will be a wrestling of the conscience on Gru's part over whether to remain true to his new life or fall back into being a bad guy. If anything, this trailer makes it seem as if Parker's Bratt is simply the cold open villain in a bit meant to pull in parents of children whose adolescence took place when South Park was in its heyday with the 80's-inspired character further capitalizing on our current nostalgic fascination with that decade. While I certainly hope that isn't the case given the initial trailer was much funnier than this one, we shall have to wait and see exactly how Gru's ever-expanding story unfolds. Still of note, there are more minions to be seen here than Gru's daughters which, if you might recall, were really the heart and soul of that original film and could certainly serve that purpose again here with the introduction of Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell). Of course, none of this really matters to Universal or Illumination as they both well know that Despicable 3 is destined to make buckets and buckets of money. Despicable Me 3 also features the voice talents of Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Pierre Coffin, Dana Gaier, and opens on June 30, 2017.

DESPICABLE ME 2 Review

When a movie only happens because the first was a surprise hit it more times than not has a sense it exists because the iron was hot rather than there being any ideas of value proposed to continue the story. Thus is the dilemma the makers of Despicable Me 2 likely encountered when the small Illumination Entertainment company scored a $540 million worldwide hit with the original film. Naturally, the studio was quick to get to work on a follow-up and now that the minions have become a cultural mainstay with a feature of their own on the way the anticipation for the second installment in what will no doubt become a more extensive series was sky high. The influence of the charming first installment looms over this uneven sequel though and unfortunately that doesn't always bode well as their is plenty going on here, but nothing really feels like it happens. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense if I'm being completely honest because the voice cast is on point, the story is a surprisingly natural extension of where the first one left off and though the animation itself is nowhere up to the standards of titan studios like Pixar, enough care is taken in the execution of the film to include countless side jokes, little details that add real personality to the characters and even a story arc for the minions, but in the end that doesn't make a complete film that is as satisfying as it should be. It is tough to explain and is really disappointing because I genuinely loved the first film and was very much looking forward to this sequel despite the fact I have no small children as excuses to go and see this, but was more than willing to walk up and buy a ticket with my head held high. Maybe it is indeed the fact I had such high expectations going in that I was somewhat let down by what was delivered, but either way it should be understood that Despicable Me 2 is not a bad film by any means, but it is purely an average film that takes advantage of the minion popularity and eager parents willing to shell out money on premium 3D tickets and countless other merchandise opportunities while the film itself feels rushed in all the human aspects it tackled so originally, or at least more interestingly, in the first film.