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Minions: The Rise of Gru Movie Review

Minions: The Rise of Gru is a 2022 animated comedy film directed by Kyle Balda and starring Steve Carell. It’s another forgettable family-friendly entry in this franchise.

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“Did you just trade my future for a pet rock?“

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This movie acts as a sequel to the 2015 spin-off movie ‘Minions’. Both are of very similar quality and not all that distinguishable from one another. Focusing on Gru’s growing up and his quest to become a supervillain, the flick doesn’t really fit all that well within the ‘Despicable Me’ canon, if there even is such a thing. They are just making things up as they go, which is expected, but still lazy.

When it comes to the characters, Gru is fine, but it is in the main Despicable Me movies where he shines the most. Here, he plays second fiddle to the yellow guys. But I really liked his dynamic with Wild Knuckles, a new introduction and a welcome one at that. Alan Arkin played him so well.

As for the Minions themselves, I have to say that they continue to work great as a team, but not individually. Clearly the franchise started to develop Kevin more in the previous flick and by now he has become a fully fledged protagonist. I liked him, but I wished that the rest of the yellow guys had more to do.

As for the humor, it’s okay. This is a kid flick after all, so it’s absolutely perfect for the little ones, but not so much for the adults. I personally like slapstick humor in animation, but not when it is stretched to feature length. It becomes too repetitive when you prolong it like this and you feel this length even at the shorter than usual 88 minutes of runtime.

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Minions: The Rise of Gru is polished and well animated, but hardly artistic or memorable in anything that it does visually. The score I actually loved as it focused heavily on 70s pop hits, resulting in a very entertaining watch. When the movie was being silly and stupid, it worked. But whenever it focused on storytelling, it suffered as the plot is wildly uninventive, forgettable and dull. The spy elements simply did not work all that well.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is a sequel that is pretty much on par with its predecessor, which means fun and forgettable ride that is more aimed at kids than adults. The movie is at its best when it’s focusing on the yellow guys goofing around and having fun, but it’s at its worst when focusing on storytelling as this spy-oriented plot is anything but great. Overall, it’s a colorful, amusing diversion, but nothing more than that. I continue to prefer the mainline Despicable Me movies over the Minions ones.

My Rating – 3