Review of Despicable Me 3 (2017) by Tilde_Gunderson — 04 Jul 2017

If you ever wanted to see what movie an algorithm would make, then just watch Despicable Me 3. Everything this movie stands for is made to make the most amount of money as efficiently as possible. From the villains character design, to the music choice, to anything the Minions are featured in... everything's made to be as neat, tidy, and appealing to as many audiences as possible. Everything's a reference to something else, and doesn't add anything. "Of course we had to include Michael Jackson's Bad in the movie! The Algorithm said so!" a studio producer says. "Make sure the villain looks like a caricature of the 80s! Kids will laugh at how stupid he looks, while parents will laugh because they can relate to it!" It's hard to rationalize this hatred for Illumination Studios, because at the end of the day, they are still a company, and a company's main goal is to make money. But when so many other studios try to make money but also push the envelope just a bit, it gets really frustrating when a movie like this makes millions (probably billions by time it's out of theatres... never mind merchandising).

And considering how inexpensive this movie cost ($80 million, compared to... say, Toy Story 3's budget of $200 million) other studios will begin to study what they're doing and emulate that. Who needs meaningful and memorable plots and themes when you can have little yellow goons running around, doing goofy things?

I can't give this movie a rating under 4, because it is still made well, makes sense, and can still be enjoyable for some.