Review of Minions (2015) by Gerardistheway — 13 Aug 2016

Despite my initial reservations about a movie based entirely around the Minions, who serve the purpose of comic relief (in their harmless, non-psycho yellow form, that is) in the two Despicable Me movies, I actually enjoyed this movie immensely. That said, I had the benefit of watching it at home rather than in the theaters, where I could easily hear the jokes over my own laughter instead of having to strain for them over both my own laughter and that of dozens of small children.

There are many good things and bad things about this movie; since it's easier, I'll start with the negative. Much of the humor is reliant on sight gags and the silly antics of its little yellow protagonists, rather than the alternatively slyly subtle and absurdly outrageous comedy found in the two previous installments. Rather than focusing on the tribe as a whole (which, to be fair, it does do for all of ten minutes at the beginning of the film and intermittently throughout the rest), to cut down on character numbers and make the writing easier they choose to focus the action around three select Minions who are played directly to stereotype: leader Kevin, lazy and guitar/ukulele-playing idiot Stuart, and sweet, naively childish Bob. The story isn't much to speak of either; here's a brief summary--Minions either let every boss they have over millions of years get killed (or kill them themselves), and after a disastrous turn working for Napoleon decide to find a new boss when building their own civilization bores them. Unless you're a child, much of the humor begins to wear thin pretty quickly, and the movie plays out much like candy: sweet surface over subtle substance.

That being said, I did laugh a lot at this movie. Though I listed the sight gags as a weakness, they're also a massive strength in some areas, and provided you don't put too much thought into the cartoon-style slapstick comedy can make for endless fun (to name a couple of examples: a lizard-man breathing fire onto an evil talent agent, chasing the Queen through London, the accidental slaying of the T-rex/caveman/Yeti, etc.). The voice cast is very talented and brings their A-game to the film, whether it be Sandra Bullock as a power-hungry baddie, Jon Hamm as her groovy inventor husband, Michael Keaton as the patriarch of a seemingly normal family reminiscent of a cross between the Cleavers and the Griswolds, or Pierre Coffin voicing the eponymous Minions, managing to bring distinctively different qualities to each of the main characters even with their similarities in both voice and appearance. Though the kids are unlikely to understand these until they get older, this film is jam-packed with cultural references from the start, with a title credits sequence set to The Turtles' "Happy Together" giving way to a Nixon poster in New York Harbor, before jumping across the pond to let England have a turn with a chase through London set to The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" and the Minions emerging from a sewer outlet onto Abbey Road (oh, the irony at who is walking by that very moment). As someone a bit between the two age groups, I found both hysterical.

Overall, this film is by no means a game-changer for animation but is a highly entertaining movie and a satisfying origin story for the Minions, which have become cultural icons since they were first introduced to us back in 2010. Kids will have a blast with this one, and provided they don't read too much into it teenagers and parents will be able to enjoy it as well. I know I did.