It has been about two and a half years since the Despicable me spin off film Minions and now we
have the third entry in this franchise.
So far in these films we have had plots like stealing the moon and trying to find a stolen formula. This time the film is about a former child actor from the eighties who has become a villain and he has stolen a diamond. Oh, and he actually believes he has become the character he once played. And as you probably, guessed Gru has to stop him from carrying out whatever plan he has in mind. Also, Gru finds out he has a long-lost brother named Dru.
Firstly I would like to make it clear that I did enjoy this film. It just has some things which could have been done better. I will first talk about positives.
As usual you have Steve Carrel as the voice of Gru. But Carrel also provides the voice of Dru. One thing I noticed about Carrel's performances in this film was just how differently he performed both of his characters. Gru is a former professional villain who is trying to leave his villainous life behind him and when discussing his former profession with his brother, he talks and acts as if his old life is definitely behind him. Dru however talks and acts like someone who is very interested in the concept of a villainous life and wants his brother to teach him how to be a villain.
Of course one of the main reasons this franchise is so popular is due to the popularity of the Minions. Since they had their own movie with Minions, I wondered just how much screen time they would get in this film. I was pleased to see that they got a reasonable amount, and in that time they did get up to some moderately funny things but nothing that I thought was extremely funny.
Gru is now married, his wife's name is Lucy and she is voiced by Kirsten Wiig and she does very little in this film that I found entertaining, even though she makes attempts to be funny and tries to get her new children to like her.
Gru's daughters Margo, Edith, and Agnes are back, but like the wife they make little contribution to the film. Margo is probably the only one who in this film gets a proper subplot. But the subplot in the end did feel a bit unnecessary.
As I mentioned before this film revolves around a former child star turned villain. His name is Balthazar Brat and he is voiced by Trey Parker. I found him funny most of the time he was on screen and he is mostly a joke on a particular person who was famous in the eighties. He is responsible for the most of the film's references to eighties popular culture, some of which I did find amusing.
Unfortunately this film does have its problems, one of which is quite serious one. I feel that it is possible that trailers for the film gave away too much. In fact the film begins with a boat heist that Gru fails to stop, and Balthazar gets away with what he stole. Most of that will already have been seen by anyone who has been to the cinema in recent months.
Its next problem is that, although Balthazar is the one who is supposed to be coming out with all the eighties culture references, it is Dr Nefario (from Despicable Me 1 and 2) who is made the object of a joke about a certain well-known film from the eighties. I can think of two things to say about that: firstly I hate the movie that reference is from, and secondly it just felt like a cheap way to write him out of the film.
Parker's character Balthazar only has one major issue and that is his catchphrase. He usually says it after he has committed a crime, and once I realised that, it just became so predictable whenever he was going to say it.
Parts of this film do have Gru and Dru spending some time together. But the film does not go into much depth to explain why they were separated at birth. The best we get from that situation is their parents split up, taking a child each, but both parents ended up disappointed in the child they chose.
Finally when the cast credits roll at the start of the film we see the names Julie Andrews and Steve Coogan. They are in the film but both of them are only in it for a few minutes each. What bothers me with this, is why would you put big names like those in the credits of your film if you're only going to have them in it for a few minutes? Once those few minutes are over for both Coogan and Andrews we never hear from their characters at any point in the film again.
Nevertheless my conclusion would be that this is an enjoyable film. If you have seen the first two films and the Minions prequel and liked them, you will probably get some enjoyment out of this one. And now I will rate Despicable Me 3.
And the rating I give it is: C.
