Review: Despicable Me 4
Can we just be done?
Is Despicable Me 4 the fourth movie in the Despicable Me franchise or should you take the Minions spinoffs/prequels into account and treat it as the sixth? Do you also need to include the numerous shorts and direct-to-DVD entries? What about the stories that unfold on the various amusement park rides?
The truth is, it doesn’t matter. Fourth movie, sixth movie, whatever. The popularity of this series means we’ll be suffering through Minion-related hijinks until we’re finally blessed with the heat death of the universe.
I wasn’t always this way. Fourteen years ago, when Despicable Me debuted, I liked it. I enjoyed its bouncy, colorful look. I laughed at the humor of fronting a kids’ movie on a villain. I thought Steve Carrell brought a surprising amount of heart as Gru embraced fatherhood. So help me, I even liked the Minions, and I’m pretty sure I chuckled at one of their sequels.
Fourteen years later, having sat with my kids as they’ve watched the series over and again, as Illumination has crammed those yellow devils down our throats, as I’ve felt my arm grow numb from holding the impossibly heavy ray gun on the Minions ride at Universal Studios, I feel so, so tired. And yet, there’s more Minions. More Gru. The cycle must come to an end. Ashes to ashes, bello to bi do.
If you are a child reading this review, you can probably disregard everything I’m about to say (although if you’re a child, you probably shouldn’t be reading this page because sometimes I use swears). You’ve seen these movies, you’ve loved these movies. They hijacked your soft, unformed brain and are critic-proof. You will probably like Despicable Me 4, but let’s be honest, you also probably liked The Emoji Movie. You’ll learn about discernment from your parents.
For the adults who will be subjected to taking their children to see this over the holiday weekend, get ready for more of the same. More over-sugared Minions mayhem, more of Gru awkwardly trying to fit into mainstream society and spouting malapropisms, more cloying pulls at the heart strings, more insufferable accents, and more noise. Much more noise. Bring Tylenol (yellow-coated aspirin will only remind you of Minions).
The fourth (sixth?) movie finds Gru (Carrell), wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and their three daughters – as well as a new baby (who appears to be played by Jack-Jack from The Incredibles) – on the run from a cockroach-obsessed villain named Maxime (Will Ferrell). Gru and the family move to a posh suburb, where they get on the bad side of their yuppy neighbor (a wasted Stephen Colbert), whose daughter Poppy (Joey King) blackmails Gru into helping her carry out a heist. Also, a handful of the Minions are turned into superheroes by the AVL because they need some sort of adventure to carry the plot.
Like Shrek, the original Despicable Me worked because it drew laughs from its main character’s pronounced unlikability and then found a way to reveal their beating heart. And, like Shrek, the concept doesn’t work once the grump has become lovable and renounced their dastardly ways. Gru’s a long way from the villain who wants to steal the Moon in the first film; now, he’s excitedly making big breakfasts and trying to get the baby to like him, and Carrell’s energy seems more desperate than genuine.
There’s entirely too much story to this fourth entry. In addition to Maxime trying to track down Gru, there’s Gru trying to bond with their baby, Poppy’s heist, Lucy trying to fake her way through a job as a hairstylist, Gru pretending he’s good at tennis to impress the neighbors, the Minions turning into very bad superheroes, the oldest daughter acclimating to school, the youngest daughter missing her pet goat, and the middle daughter breaking her karate instructor’s toe. The film is overloaded and rushes through its subplots with no room for character growth or even the opportunity to properly set up the jokes. It moves fast and frantically, and everyone is yelling the entire time. It’s like having your head stuck in a pinball machine. By the time it ended at the obligatory sing-a-long/dance party, I just wanted a nap.
Occasionally, the film made me chuckle. I think the Minions work best in small doses – they’d be fun as shorts – and there are way too many scenes of Minions just milling around causing annoyance. But a sequence in which the new “Mega Minions” try and fail to stop crime has some funny riffs on superhero shenanigans, and a running gag with a Minion trapped in a vending machine is amusing. The set piece in which Gru tries to help Poppy with her heist is fun and energetic, and the rare moment where the movie slows down enough to let the jokes build and pay off.
Everything else is too frantic and shrill. Wiig is, once again, utterly wasted and subjected to lame riffs on domestic life. The girls get one scene each to hit their emotional beats before the film moves on – a shame for a series that once had its emotional core in the joys of parenting. The plot introduces complications and then rushes to get to the next gag, and Maxime, with his love of cockroaches and highly exaggerated French accent (the Minions speak more convincing French) is annoying rather than fun. The film also gives Maxime a sidekick played by Sofia Vergara, who doesn’t do much more than spout one-liners that make us ask “where have we heard that voice before.” Its climax is a rushed jumble that also introduces an element of infant body horror it doesn’t seem to realize is fairly disturbing.
And rather than new jokes, Despicable Me 4 just constantly references other, better movies. The prep school where Gru and Poppy pull off their heist is just a cartoon Hogwarts (or, as my daughter suggested, maybe Hotel Transylvania). Almost every scene with Gru and Lucy’s baby is just ripped from The Incredibles. There’s a broken monorail gag stolen from “The Simpsons” that then morphs into a parody of Spider-Man 2, and an extended riff on Terminator 2’s chase scene. The film even has a Honey Badger joke. Maybe the references will amuse a few bored adults, but they’ll largely sail over kids’ heads. And they’d be funny if there were actually more to the jokes than “remember that thing?”
Perhaps I’m being overly grumpy (if Gru’s not going to be, someone must). Despicable Me 4 is far from the worst kids’ movie I’ve seen. My kids were amused. But IF proved that a good kids’ movie needn’t be manic and can engage children’s emotions. Inside Out 2 proved that you can return to stories about familiar characters and tell stories with humor, creativity and thoughtfulness. Despicable Me is a huge franchise, and this just says “if we cram more of the same down your throats, you’ll still show up and pay money.” It’s unimaginative, loud and largely unfunny, and this cast should be doing better things.