Review of Despicable Me 2 (2013) by Hoops2448 — 09 Jul 2013

Were you disappointed Gru didn't get a chance to use his dance moves to woo a lady friend in the first Despicable Me? Well worry not, Despicable Me 2 is here to entertain and slightly annoy with its overly saccharine message of family.

Despicable Me 2 tells the story of how Gru gets roped into stopping an elusive villain by ditsy anti-villain agent Lucy Wilde (Kristin Wig). Along the way Gru must contend with his new role as a single father and how to move past his old life as a villain.

The main problem with Despicable Me 2 is that it doesn't capitalize on its emotions, it doesn't make you feel as warm as the first one did, in fact it only really makes you wish you were watching it. The film is impressive for its visuals, in fact the film ups the spectacle quota quite a bit and the budget seems bigger meaning the action feels more impressive but it lacks that personal touch.

The kids are just as entertaining, Agnes with her youth, Edith with her oddly fun obsession with violence and Margo with her faux grown up sensibility. They are just as good but the scripting in the first was tighter giving each of the children moments.

In this Edith is a cameo, she rarely appears and has very few lines or things to do. In fact this film doesn't really emphasize family so much as scream it at you making for a fairly manipulative film and without one of the children in the actual film it feels like whatever message they are trying to delivers seems a tad moot considering the lack of a cohesive family for almost the entire run time.