Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

I've been waiting since Despicable Me 2 for the makers of the Minions to make another good movie in the franchise. After seeing Minions: The Rise of Gru I think I'll have to keep waiting. This movie isn't as trashy and terrible as the last 2 movies with Minions, but it's not anything special. I always have a slight issue with any of these movies because having an aspiring villain as your protagonist is such a challenge. It's hard for me to cheer for a young Gru to become more evil, and I'm not even sure how the logic of the villains even works. It seems like the minute Gru gets the better of the Vicious 6 they would consider him a great villain, yet they instead form this vendetta against him. It just never works for me living in these opposite worlds where bad is good, and good is bad, particularly with such loveable and fun-loving minions. There's a lack of any consistency, and even if I get a chuckle out of it, I don't think it's the best kind of story-telling.

I still think that the Minions are better in smaller doses. The long sequences with just Minions and them learning kung fu is only cute for a few minutes and starts to get tedious as they go on. I also struggle every single time I watch a prequel. I don't understand Hollywood's fascination with making them, and just like any other prequel, they make a point of shining a spotlight on things that are in the original movies. "Oh look, it's Dr. Nefario!" "Now there is that bank manager guy, I know him!" It's not good story-telling, and fails to have a purpose for people who aren't overly familiar with the first film. There is a lot of negativity in this review, but I want to make it clear I didn't hate seeing this movie. Minions: The Rise of Gru was good for some laughs, particularly in the big climax. I don't hate the Minions as much as some other people do, and I wanted to enjoy this as much as I liked Despicable Me or even Despicable Me 2. It was underwhelming, but considering where the franchise has gone, this was at least a little more enjoyable.

Fmovies: 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' follows 11 3/4 year old Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell) trying to make a name for himself and join the ranks of an elite villians group, the Vicious 6. With humble beginnings as a troublemaker in his mother's basement, the minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) are determined to help him succeed in his mission.

The film is a sort of origin story for Gru, despite having elusions to his childhood in the 1st and 3rd movies. The wacky and wonderful minions carry the film, but sadly, the plot seems haphazard. The henchmen, Jean-Clawed (voice by Jean-Claude Van Damme), Svengeance (voiced by Dolph Lundgren), and Stronghold (voiced by Danny Trejo) all seem to be second-string compared to Belle Bottom (voiced by Taraji P. Henson) and Wild Knuckles (voiced by Alan Arkin). The animation is fairly standard of the earlier movies, the flow is solid, and the film's ending kind of makes sense, but the plot in general is a bit of a hodgepodge.

Worth a watch with the kids.

Join Gru and the Minions in the sequel that's actually better than the first! It's fun for kids, teens, adults, and seniors! Let's make this film gross $1 trillion in the freaking box office, y'all!

Minions: The Rise of Gru fmovies. The reason The Rise of Gru feels like such a let down is because it lacks creativity, there's not enough of minions, but there's not enough of the young Gru either. That's not to say it isn't a movie families with young children will have fun watching, but compared to this movie's predecessor and all the Despicable Me movies so far, The Rise of Gru is probably the flattest of each of them.

Directed by Kyle Balda from a story written and co-thought by Matthew Fogel, this Minions movie brings back Steve Carrell to voice the child-version of the "superbad-superdad" Gru and Pierre Coffin as the minions to a setting during the 1970s and behind the Despicable Me movies. If you are a Despicable Me fan or just appreciate the original movies, this film offers a delightful set of hilarious references and other jokes that'll have the whole family laughing. The typical requirements for animated movies such as voices, animation and other things all work out well in this movie.

However, for a Despicable Me prequel titled Minions: The Rise of Gru, this film sure lacks a fair amount of time to laugh with the minions, and the child Gru doesn't have enough of a story or motive behind him that keeps us fully appealed to the story. This film also follows the predictable Despicable Me basis of having protagonists working with their own lives, but then there's the threat by the villain/s. And this movies group of villains may be funny, but they're completely unoriginal, leading to the plot to be quite bland.

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Just loved it, the whole time! There is no time to get bored at all, it's full of well-made action and really funny stuff, and the minions are truly lovely.

It may feel in total like this franchise is running out of steam, or at least fresh and creative ideas- but Minions The Rise of Gru does manage to be decently entertaining and charming enough to be worth at least a one time watch. A lot of people, critics included, bash the 2015 film Minions for a lack of a true plot among many other things- but in my personal opinion I actually enjoyed the first minions movie and may even find it better than this one. Although both films are flawed, Minions had a very clear although frantic vision set in mind for ts characters- and never felt like a combination of two completely different films like this one did. So what is it about this film that makes it worth watching? Well the animation for one is absolutely fantastic, gorgeous visuals that are easily the best to ever come out of Illumination in their company's entire run. Kid Gru is also a fun and charming lead, and i'll be darned if the minions silly gags didn't charm me from time to time and even earn a chuckle or two (the airplane scene most of all). Its plot is truly all over the place, much like the first film, and its focus on characters feels very divided- as well as its focus on future characters come to be in the franchise considering and reminding the audience how this is a prequel- in case the 70's vibes wouldn't tell you otherwise. I don't know, its entertaining it has its moments and I found some fun in it. Its an uneven little flick but its use of colorful visuals and fun characters make it decent enough for a pleasant experience- and certainly trumps the third Despicable Me film and latest franchise release before this one almost 5 years ago. It's hard to believe this franchise is still going, and how it still manages to propel itself forward, but in this age of commercialization and franchises- Minions the Rise of Gru can be more tolerable than most.

My Rating: 6.2/10.