Film Review - Minions: The Rise of Gru

Images courtesy of Universal Pictures Australia.

Not since Harry Potter has a franchise aged so well, or captivated audiences’ hearts like Despicable Me/Minions. Now in its fifth feature, this franchise has demonstrated unusual staying power during its reign atop the cinematic throne.

Ok now that I’ve infuriated the movie buffs, I can say that Rise of Gru is not Oscar-bait but is exactly the kind of brain-dead fun we’ve come to expect from these films – especially when dealing with a Minions spin-off. Forever stuck in the past, this one’s another prequel. This time set in the swingin’ 60’s, yet again following the hijinx of the minions after finally finding their purpose at the close of Minions, they immediately lose Gru again and retread the American countryside, this time to San Franbisco. 

This retreat to the familiar is most obvious in the inclusion of Gru as a primary character. My fear going into the movie was that this highly merchandisable version of little Gru had the potential to detract from the fact that we are in a spin-off, but fortunately for the banana-loving henchmen, Gru spends almost a majority of the film being preoccupied with nefarious villainy. Scenes where the minions recapture the spotlight are seeded throughout, typically in the form of nonsensical gags, slowly threading the overarching plot together. 

This is the primary obstacle for Minions features, where the characters excel in Family Guy-esque cutaway gags, they also struggle to maintain an entire feature by themselves. Minions (1) catapulted off of this slapstick-shallow personality, partially by becoming a commentary on human nature with parodies of several of history’s worst villains neatly buoying the plot along as Bob, Kevin and Steve said nary a word. Rise of Gru meanwhile, employs the backdrop of the disco era against the familiarity of cameos from Despicable Me‘s placeholder characters.

Now me personally, I would’ve made the exact same movie if I’d been at the helm of Rise of Gru- there’s enough funny material with a road trip, hippy clothes, squeaky voiced Gru and dodgy gadgets to string together more throwaway gags than you can shake a stick at. But therein lies the problem: where is the actual plot if the best parts of the movie are segments that could be wholly removed without losing the context of the moment. In this case, the neglect this has on character development is completely worth it to me because there are lots of bare bum scenes in here for the yucks and that’s all I want from an animated movie. If you come seeking inspiring lore and fulfilling arcs, then I fear you may leave wanting more.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is screening in cinemas from Thursday June 23rd. For tickets and more info, click here.