Balancing charm and endearing shenanigans, “Minions” does come out on top as the best of the “Despicable Me” movies to date, but it fails to be anything more than mediocre.
The films in the “Despicable Me” franchise have never managed to impress me. The overall quality of each film has only ever been one rung above the DreamWorks cesspool and are saved from complete ruin by sheer charm and an occasional spark of wit. They’re certainly better than Illumination Entertainment’s other samples of cinematic diarrhea, namely “Hop” and the utterly disgusting and morally-bankrupt adaptation of “The Lorax.” So I suppose compared to a non-entity and the cinematic equivalent of a war crime, “Minions” is at least a step in the right direction for Illumination.
The story of “Minions” follows the seemingly immortal pill shaped monsters as they evolve from the oceans, set upon land, and try to find the biggest and baddest villain around to serve. The main setting is London, 1968 after a as a trio of the little fellows go on a recon mission to save their tribe from boredom leaning on existential depression.
It’s a simple story, but it fits because of the focus on the simplest creatures in this world. They are simple creatures and with that comes simple needs and desires. The movie could’ve tried to have been more complex, showing how even the smallest creatures have more going on that what we give them credit for, but this isn’t that kind of movie. We get to see a glimpse into a society that is admittedly fascinating despite not having that much depth.
Illumination has taken the concept of what minions are and have drawn out a unique little race of people that depend upon the meanest creatures around in order to survive. Purpose in life is not fulfilled through self-discovery or the propagation of the species, but through service to a creature that is either mean beyond all reason or self-identifies as “evil.” This core concept is an interesting idea and it’s a shame that it doesn’t go anywhere because it can’t go anywhere because it all has to line-up to where “Despicable Me” starts out.
It’s also a shame that the minions only speak in a mix of English, Spanish, what I assume are a few other languages, and complete gibberish. This movie suffers from that mainly because it never seems to want to commit to the idea. Because our main characters don’t speak in a consistent language, which means the conveying of emotions and ideas is dependent upon physical performance, but they only do this in the blandest ways possible. There’s no nuance here, nothing to show there’s been any thought given to subtly. And it isn’t just the minions themselves, the human cast is also non-impressive, but they have less of an excuse to justify it.
Our central human character is Scarlet Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, and she is the newest and hottest super-villain to hit the scene. Scarlet starts out as a fairly interesting character, she’s the world’s first female supervillain and has made a name for herself thanks to her skill, intelligence, and inexplicable strength (lady’s got twigs for arms and yet she somehow has the Hulk’s super strength). And because the “Despicable Me” movies have done fairly competent gray morality building before for central “villains” maybe this means we can someone who shares in that complexity, but nope she’s crazy, her character is flat, and all her potential is squandered.
Her husband is another story, he’s more of an affably evil beatnik and he’s just so genuinely enthusiastic about everything he does that it’s hard not to have a soft spot for the guy. There’s also a family of super-villains hat are basically the “anti-Incredibles” with an Addams family to edge and they’re enjoyable for the most part. They are a loving, caring, and fun family that just so happens to rob banks and carry around bazookas. That’s always a good gag.
The rest of the humor is, as humor always is, hit or miss. It’s got a whole lot of slapstick and nods to 60’s culture that’ll either have you chuckling along or rolling your eyes. The humor had me mostly smiling to myself with rare instances of actually laughing out loud, mostly at the slapstick, but some of the more well-delivered dialogue got a laugh out of me.
The cast isn’t impressive, but they don’t disappoint either. This isn’t the most embarrassing thing Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, or Geoffrey Rush have ever done thankfully and they bring as much energy as is needed to breathe something resembling life these characters and that’s it.
I’ve never cared for the animation in any Illumination Entertainment movies. Their character designs are either adorable (like some children or the minions) or they’re disgusting potato and twig monsters that only remotely resemble human beings. The movie starts out with a cute little animation design before moving onto the more typical 3D fair, where everything is admittedly well-constructed, but largely unimpressive. It’s the equivalent of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon; it’s not trying to be anything other than funny.
“Minions” is just another example of Illumination Entertainment playing it safe and not going for anything another than the lowest bar of quality. I know they can do better, there’s potential in the way they tell stories and in that hideous art style they always choose for something better. Until then, “Minions” is serviceable and although I liked it better than the other films in this series, it’ll swiftly pass into memory like so much incoherent gibberish on the wind.
