Minions: The Rise of Gru – Trotting Out The Minions Once Again

Ever since 2010’s Despicable Me, its gibberish-speaking minions have captured the hearts of the world and have become a pop culture sensation. Appearing in two other Despicable Me films and their own prequel spinoff film, Minions, among other properties since then, their power has not wavered. Suffice it to say that this franchise isn’t coming to an end anytime soon. There’s still plenty of merchandise left to sell. The next film in the pipeline is a Minions sequel entitled Minions: The Rise of Gru which does exactly what its title implies. For audiences who love the minions, this is most likely not going to change here as the film is yet another showcase of minions doing minion things for better or worse. Its ultimate target audience is clear as it doesn’t try to be anything other than that. Either way, for everybody else, at least it’s short, running at just under 90 minutes. The minions are one thing but the film will also likely leave many wanting more as it fails to deliver much in the way of a story to support them.

Minions: The Rise of Gru takes place in the 1970s and follows a 12-year-old Gru (Carell) with aspirations of becoming the world’s greatest supervillain. Armed with his legion of minions (Coffin), he idolized the infamous group of supervillains known as the Vicious 6, dreaming of one day becoming a member of the group. Little did Gru know, he would get the chance to join the group but in order to join the group, he’d have some growing up to do. However, so did the minions. In spite of that, still trying to prove himself, he earned the ire of the Vicious 6, leading to his abduction. Meanwhile the minions, finally finding some sense of purpose, found that purpose threatened by the loss of Gru. As far as he was concerned, it was up to his minions to save him the only way they knew how. While their methods were certainly unusual, this was where the fun was as Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto took charge in order to try and make things right though maybe things were not as bad as they seemed.

As Gru and the minions went about their own business, one could expect plenty of hijinks as both found themselves on different trajectories. Under the tutelage of exiled Vicious 6 founding member Wild Knuckles (Arkin), Gru got an invaluable lesson on what it was like to really be a supervillain. These sequences were fun to watch primarily for the contrast between the younger Gru and the older Wild Knuckles while they broke up minion scenes. Though they may be an absolute delight, they alone could not carry a feature film. Therefore the film gave them plenty of other human characters to interact with if only to communicate with audiences for them and to help them along their journey. The highlight was of course their kung fu lesson from an acupuncturist named Master Chow (Michelle Yeoh). For the most part, these moments were a blast to watch as the film turns to a minion greatest hits of sorts for humor which admittedly has a short shelf life. In the end, with the rest of the ridiculous members of the Vicious 6 hot on their tail, all the storylines eventually converged in what was an entertaining yet short climax.

Those wondering about the future of the franchise beyond Minions: The Rise of Gru need not be concerned as a fourth Despicable Me film is well in the works. However this film fits within the franchise as a whole remains to be seen but at the end of the day, this film felt like an excuse to trot out the minions once again with the story essentially being an afterthought. That being said, it still works and based on the film’s box office gross thus far, there is still more than enough of an audience out there. The level of animation is still what one would come to expect from Illumination while the voice acting remains superb from Carell as Gru to Yeoh as Chow. Assembling an all-star voice cast for the Vicious 6 from Arkin, to Taraji P. Henson as Belle Bottom, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jean-Clawed, Dolph Lundgren as Svengeance, Danny Trejo as Stronghold, and Lucy Lawless as Nun-Chuck, they were all wasted here which was a real shame.

Minions: The Rise of Gru may just be an excuse to trot out its titular henchman once again but to most, that’s enough and is sure to hit the right spot with its target audience.

 still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.