Producer/director Chris Renaud and the rest of the Illumination team need to be careful, lest they steer this franchise into treacherous waters.
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| Teenage Poppy Prescott (voice by Joey King), determined to become a super-villain, blackmails Gru (Steve Carell) into helping her with a "big heist." They're accompanied by Gru Jr. and faithful Minions Phil and Ralph. |
There’s also a strong sense of familiarity and “borrowing” from other sources, which suggests scarcity of original thought.
To cases, then:
Events begin as Gru (again voiced by Steve Carell) and his Anti-Villain League task force infiltrate a reunion party at his alma-mater, the Lycée Pas Bon School of Villainy, in order to arrest long-time nemesis Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell). The operation nearly goes awry, when Maxime transforms himself into a human cockroach — complete with six nasty, jagged limbs — but Gru and the AVL team win the day.
(Maxime’s makeover is this film’s first serious flaw. It isn’t maintained consistently, during what follows; more critically, Maxime never again is as ferociously strong and scary, particularly during the third act climax, as he is in this initial confrontation.)
With that assignment out of the way, Gru settles into new parenthood; alas, baby Gru Jr. prefers the company of his mother, Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and wants nothing to do with dear ol’ dad. Although these father/infant tussles are amusing — particularly with respect to Gru Jr.’s lightning-swift changes of expression — they feel an awful lot like the similar difficulties Bob Parr had with baby Jack-Jack, in The Incredibles.
Then, catastrophe: Maxime breaks out of AVL’s supposedly escape-proof cell, with the help of condescending girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara) and his army of armored (regular-sized) cockroaches. Determined to avenge his capture, Maxime promises to kidnap what is most dear to Gru: his infant son.
AVL head Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan, mirthfully stuffy) acts swiftly, and places Gru, Lucy and their family — including daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan) — into a safe house in the picturesque community of Mayflower. They’re joined by Gru’s three most loyal Minions — Ron, Phil and Ralph — while all the others are taken to AVL Headquarters, where Ramsbottom has “special plans” for some of them.
The film subsequently cuts between four parallel storylines:
• Gru’s clumsy attempt to fit into his new surroundings — particularly with neighbors Perry and Patsy Prescott (Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman) — while posing as “Chet Cunningham,” a salesman for solar panels;
• Maxime and Valentina’s efforts to locate Gru and family, in their massive, weapon-laden cockroach-shaped aircraft;
• Gru’s reluctant alliance with teenage Poppy Prescott (Joey King), who dreams of becoming a super-villain, and — having recognized Gru — blackmails him into helping her steal the Lycée Pas Bon School of Villainy’s mascot, a ferocious honey badger named Lenny; and
• The ill-advised results of Ramsbottom’s “enhanced” Minions, who become a preposterously overblown “superhero” team: Mega-Dave, imbued with super-strength; banana-shaped Mega-Tim, with the stretching ability of (ahem) Elastigirl; Mega-Mel, whose sole eye now emits an unstoppable laser blast; Mega Gus, who flies ... albeit erratically; and Mega Jerry, now resembling a rocky boulder able to chow down on anything in his path.
Perhaps these Minion riffs on The Incredibles, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men are intentional. (One hopes Daurio and White don’t regard them as “original.”) Regardless, the Minions’ subsequent attempts at good-deed-doing are predictably calamitous ... and they feel like a time-filler.
Similarly, Perry and Patsy Prescott remain badly under-developed. The latter is particularly bewildering; at one point, her hasty insistence on “getting to know” the new neighbors seems almost sinister, but nothing comes of this. Indeed, these two Prescotts simply vanish, as the story slides into its climax.
On the other hand, the subplot involving Gru and Poppy — and their effort to clandestinely infiltrate the Lycée Pas Bon School of Villainy — is terrific. This sequence has the creativity, pacing and character development that the rest of the film lacks. Poppy starts off as a typically obnoxious teen, selfishly forcing Gru to adhere to her demands, but they soon become a crackerjack team fueled by mutual respect.
Their attempt to capture Lenny is priceless ... as is the immediate reprisal by the school’s ancient, wheelchair-bound Principal Übelschlecht (the venerable June Squibb, who seems to be everywhere these days).
Gru’s final confrontation with Maxime isn’t such a much, although what the villain does to Gru Jr. is rather hideous (perhaps too much so, for an adventure this larkish?).
And what the heck happened to Maxime’s cockroach army? A giant-size can of Raid?
Following this skirmish, a lengthy epilogue gathers the entire cast, along with cameo appearances by former villains — Vector (Jason Segel), El Macho (Benjamin Bratt), Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock) and Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henderson), among others — for a lively group performance of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” which should (and probably will) become an Internet meme.
In fairness, Renaud and co-director Patrick Delage keep things moving rapidly enough to gloss over the story’s weaker elements, and the voice talent is uniformly top-notch; Joey King is particularly fine as Poppy Prescott.
But Illumination has set a high bar, with previous Despicable Me/Minions entries, and this one doesn’t come close to that standard.
We can only hope for better, moving forward.
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