Despicable Me 2
What They Say:
Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal.
The Review:
When Despicable Me came out back in 2010, it was a surprise film for me since I’m generally not of the right audience for a lot of the CG kids films these days. But the feature just managed to fire on all cylinders for me and I have to admit that having had it on Blu-ray for a couple of years now, it hasn’t lost any of its charm with the number of times that the kids bring out the disc and play it. With the lead-up to the sequel, it’s been interesting to see that they’ve largely stuck with the one primary trailer for it and that the majority of what’s in it is in the first act, keeping you from feeling like the whole thing is being spoiled. That’s not to say it isn’t predictable as it goes on – the first one was as well – but it plays with things pretty well and has an ease and polish about it that the first came close to achieving in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reach the level of the first one with the story overall.
The premise for the film is pretty basic in that we’re now at a time where Gru has definitely given up the villain game and has become quite the father to the three girls. There’s a lot of fun with Agnes’ birthday party at the start, and it’s also good to see that there’s some really good bonding moments between Gru and all the girls and the simple silliness of being a part of the neighborhood. But it’s all cut short as he gets kidnapped by Lucy of the Anti Villain League, which is set up to handle the big events of the world (with a fun nod towards his own moon stealing plot from the first film). What they want with him is to bring in the mind of a criminal to find out what’s going on with a major job that’s happened recently with the theft of the PX-41 formula, which can cause an immense amount of trouble with how it can change someone or an animal into a brutal violent creature. It’s done with a comical element of course, but the point is there that in the wrong hands it could create a big problem.
Gru gets teamed up with Lucy and all the AVL gadgets to go to the mall where they think things are happening, and that puts Gru on the trail of the villains. This actually has the kids excited since they like to see him doing things he’s good at, but it also comes with them (especially Agnes) being interested in seeing Gru hook up with some woman since Agnes really wants a mom. But all three of them just want him to be happy with someone as an adult, which is definitely fun. There’s obviously going to be nudging with Lucy, and she makes a fun character and plays well off of Gru with her more outgoing and happy outlook on things compared to him. Not that he’s a curmudgeon, but there’s a layer of distrust there to him from his time as a villain. With the two of them sneaking into various stores at the mall to try and find traces of the PX-41, they have a good a lot of fun and plenty of cuteness to it all.
And that kind of sums up the film in a way. Cute. Harmless. But fun. Despicable Me 2 doesn’t advance things much from what we saw in the first film with the world it created and the depth of it when it comes to what the villains were up to, but it doesn’t want to go further down that path and instead explore other areas. The main new introduction is the AVL itself, but even that gets a sliver of depth compared to what we saw of the various “institutions” from the first film from the villains side, which is a shame since they did come up with some neat ideas there with the bank and all. Where this one wants to go instead is more with just the characters, showing us how Gru has really taken to being a father and the fun of the villains themselves that are revealed here as it progresses. And, it introduces a more “mature” female with Lucy and that provides some good things for Gru to play off of since she’s just so, well, perky for most of it.
While there’s a lot of good material for the main cast, there’s also a lot of time given over to the Minions this time around. They certainly stole a the show a bunch of times with the first feature and have been quite beloved since then, so naturally they take the approach of beefing up their role here. Which is kind of a mistake since there is a full on Minion’s film coming out at the end of 2014. The use of them here is definitely greater and we get more names for them and several of them definitely have more character to them overall, but they take up more of the story time than they really needed to and become a bit too much. Which is a hard thing to say because I did enjoy a lot of the gags and subplots with them, but it comes at the expense of some of the other main characters, particularly with the kids and Gru. A lot of my fun in the first movie was the kids and how they messed with Gru, but I like the change here to where they’re definitely a family and we see Gru bending over backwards to make them happy. But the minions step into play in what feels like most every scene and that just becomes distracting after awhile, especially since they as a whole are instrumental to the key part of the third act with what the main villain has planned. They definitely should have been used more sparingly and it has me a bit more leery about the full on Minions movie now.
In Summary:
Despicable Me 2 has a decent story to it and hits all the right notes, making for an enjoyable experience that lightly expands the world that we were introduced to with the first film. But just from this first experience, it doesn’t leave you with the feeling of wanting to go right back in for another showing right away, which for me makes me uncertain just what its replay value will be like. And that’s a big positive for the first film as it does have a good amount of replay value to it – and quotable lines, which this one really does lack. I love the minions, but they’re overused here. I really liked the addition of Lucy and that they once again make some changes to the characters over the course of the film and they don’t end where they started. I’m certainly game for me since I enjoy the characters, but it’s a typical sophomore effort where it tries to overdo the charm and ends up coming up short instead.
Grade: B