Review of Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) by Player2-Water — 30 Jul 2022

E-Value: 8.

Acting: 8.

Plot: 7.

The story of the Minions’ past continue in this instalment where they are join by their current boss which they later continue serving him in the future Despicable Me instalments, Felonius Gru (Carell).

Seven years after the events of the first movie, the Minions (Coffin) have been serving Gru as their loyal minions to help him achieve his dream of becoming a supervillain. One day, Gru receives an audition invitation to join a supervillain team called Vicious 6 which is now lead by Bella Bottom (P. Henson), after the death of the team’s founder, Wild Knuckles.

Gru attends the audition but the outcome is very poor because the Vicious 6 look down on him for being a child. Eager to prove himself and them wrong, Gru steals the Zodiac Stone which the Vicious 6 stole it years ago during a heist. As he is being chased by the Vicious 6, Gru gives the stone to Otto, one of the Minions, and they will meet back at his hideout while he along with the other Minions: Kevin, Stuart and Bob distract them.

Back in the hideout, Gru and the other Minions are furious to find out that Otto has trade away the Zodiac Stone for a pet rock with some random kid at a birthday party. To make matter worse, the stone is now under the hands of kid’s uncle, who is now on route to San Francisco. Gru goes after the stone while elsewhere, there is another person who wants the Zodiac Stone as well besides the Vicious 6.

Compare to the first Minions movie, this movie improved in many ways. For one, the movie not only focus on the Minions as the main protagonist but also include Gru in the role as well. In addition, this movie feels much closer to a Despicable Me movie. Neither the Minions nor Gru steals the spotlight each other throughout the movie. Gru has a great character developments in this movie and his interactions with the Minions is still heartwarming to watch on big screen. The humours in this movie is much better and improved than the previous movie.

In terms of animation, Illumination still have done great job in that department and suffer no downfall. The casts have done a great in the voice acting as well especially Steve Carell, who still retains the charm of voicing Gru. Let’s not forget about Pierre Coffin, who once again did a great job in voicing all the Minions. The plot of the movie is fine and easy enough to follow without any complications.

Despite the improvement from the first movie, this movie have major mistakes. First, there is a continuity error in this movie. Gru is said to be an eleven years old boy in this movie but he still looks the same like he was at the end of the first movie with no sign of aging at all. Next, the other members of Vicious 6 are generally flat characters and generic henchmen. Not only they do not have many lines but they are all voiced by well-known celebrity actors. This is really a waste of their talents in such a small role. The studios should have gone with lesser known actors instead of hiring celebrity actors.

Nevertheless, the movie is still fun to watch. Kids will definitely enjoy this movie. You can bring you kids to watch this movie on the weekends. Even if you are not a kid but have watch all Despicable Me movies, you should definitely catch this one.