Mark Reviews Movies: MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU

Minions: The Rise of Gru, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 30, 2022

The Minions, those squishy but indestructible little yellow creatures, return to their roles as, well, minions in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Their previous solo adventure offered a little insight into their cosmically tragic origins—evolved to be servants to villainous figures throughout history, only to be awful at their only role in life—and possessed glimpses of the kind of anarchic comedy in which they thrive. They get pushed to the sidelines again in this sequel to the spin-off/prequel, which is as much about the character in the subtitle: Gru (voice of Steve Carell), who's a pre-teen of an aspiring supervillain in this installment.

As a character, Gru started to run his course as soon as he abandoned villainy in the first Despicable Me, and in returning him to his pre-villain days, screenwriter Matthew Fogel might have found a way to make him deviously interesting again in what are sure to be future entries in this prequel series. As for the Minions, they once again appear to be doomed to being sidekicks, and maybe that's for the best. No one involved in these movies has seemed to imagine a way to use them otherwise.

That leaves this installment with a mixed focus, an unclear sense of narrative purpose, and a decided uncertainty about its sense of humor. The Minions—all voiced by Pierre Coffin but mainly the trio of Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, along with newcomer Otto—still get to talk in high-pitched voices, speaking in a mixture of various Romance languages and gibberish, and become involved in some physical hijinks, as they try to support Gru in his villainous ambitions and, later, save him from problems for which they are partially responsible.

Their best moments—although that's not saying much in this entry—revolve around chaos, such as when our main trio, trying to catch a flight to San Francisco, disguise themselves as pilots and a flight attendant. The setup to the extended gag, which has leader Kevin and one-eyed Stuart trying to fly the plane themselves (Bob is handing out peanuts to passengers—well, one peanut to each passenger—in the cabin), has some potential. It's akin to an animated short, with its own gimmick and little plot, being tossed into the middle of the broader plot, and maybe that feeling of randomness is exactly why it stands out from the rest the movie. If the Minions exist as unintentional harbingers of accidents and anarchy, the only way they could carry a movie, perhaps, is if it exists as a series of semi-interconnected episodes.

That's definitely not the approach of Fogel and director Kyle Balda (who also directed or co-directed the previous two installments in this franchise). Here, there's a set order to things, which revolves around a MacGuffin (a mystical amulet that grants the bearer supernatural powers), a team of antagonists (called the Vicious Six and made up of gimmicky supervillains), and a plot that's basically a multi-party chase. For better and for worse, the Minions and their comedy have never fit into some kind of mold, and in trying to force them into a story that has little to do with them, the filmmakers drain these diminutive characters of their comedic potential from the start.

The item that everyone wants is called the Zodiac Stone. A lengthy prologue has the Vicious Six, led by head villain Wild Knuckles (voice of Alan Arkin), retrieving the magical thing and being betrayed by his partners-in-crime. With an opening in place, the remaining five are looking for a replacement, so Gru applies and is granted an interview with the organization, now led by Belle Bottom (voice of Taraji P. Henson). By the way, the story is set in 1976, so be prepared for a lot of disco jokes and not much else about the era.

Anyway, Gru steals the amulet, is chased by the five villains (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, and Lucy Lawless basically have glorified vocal cameos as the others), and is abducted by Knuckles, who wants the Zodiac Stone to become top supervillain again. Unfortunately for him and Gru, Otto exchanged the mystical item for a Pet Rock, so while he goes looking for it, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob try to track down their boss.

With all of these threads and subplots, there simply isn't much time for the Minions and their shenanigans. There's the bit with the plane and a training session with a kung fu master voiced by Michelle Yeoh (It has one inspired moment of Kevin trying and failing to break a wooden board with his head, only for Stuart to try and fail to break the board—with Kevin's head, too). Otherwise, Minions: The Rise of Gru provides a lot of running around from plot beat to plot beat, as characters keep chasing each other and the amulet, while the title characters and, for that matter, the comedy are shoved aside.

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