THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Minions was a spin-off from Illumination that we didn't need, yet was entertaining enough to be a billion dollar hit, a first for the animated studio. With moviegoers somehow not getting enough of the Despicable Me characters, it felt logical business wise to give another batch of minion mayhem
PLOT
2022's The Rise of Gru takes place in 1976 and follows the minions under the wing of the young Felonius who aspires to be a supervillain like the team of the Vicious 6 that include: Belle Bottom, Jean-Clawed (Jean Claude Van Damme), Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), Stronghold (Danny Trejo) and Nun-chuck (Lucy Lawless). After recently betraying their teammate Wild Knuckles for the magical Zodiac Stone, they offer the young Gru an audition invitation but it goes poorly as they don't think he is capable to be at their level due to his age. He chooses to prove it by taking the stone for himself and hands it to the minion Otto for safekeeping. That plan would backfire as he traded it for a pet rock. Livid that the whole group of minions have not proved themselves to him after taking them in, he fires them all. Things take another drastic turn when Wild Knuckles, who was left for dead by the V6, kidnaps Gru and demands the stone to be handed to him in his San Francisco home in 48 hours or he will kill their boss. Otto pursues the uncle of the child he traded the stone for the rock, now wearing it as a necklace. the trio of Kevin, Stuart & Bob go straight to San Francisco to rescue Gru. When they reach WK's house, they get chased by his goons until being protected by kung fu teacher turned acupuncturist Master Chow. She gives them some lessons before they try again to save their boss. In the meantime, Otto gets the stone back when catching up with the biker (RZA) who takes him to San Francisco. Gru luckily gets the chance to bond with WK when his goons choose to quit on him, learning how to be a villain by stealing from the Bank of Evil. When the V6 find out he's alive, they destroy his house in an attempt to find him. When they don't find him yet, they make their way to Chinatown with the minion trio in pursuit. Distraught of his home being destroyed, he gives up villainy on the spot and sends Gru away. When passing through Chinatown, he finds Otto with the stone before getting cornered by the V6. They take the stone to become super-powered animals from the Zodiac (Belle turns into a dragon, Nun-chuck turns into a snake, Jean-clawed turns into a monkey, Stronghold turns into a bull & Svengeance turns into a tiger) and tie Gru to the hands of a clock tower which will rip him apart. When the minion trio arrive, Belle turns them into smaller animals in her eyes won't pack a punch (Kevin turns into a rabbit, Bob turns into a goat and Stuart turns into a rooster). However due to Chow's teachings, they use their inner beast to defend themselves better than anticipated. Otto is able to save him, but WK gets severely burnt when trying to take the stone back. Once the minion trio overpower the V6, Gru gets the stone back and turns the opposing group into rats before surrendering it all to the Anti-Villain League. After Gru reconciles with the minions and rehires them all, WK would be hospitalized but would fake his death much to Gru's surprise. The film ends in a mid credits scene where Gru recruits Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) out of respect to him helping his escape from V6 when first stealing the stone.
THOUGHTS
As a casual of this franchise, I was disappointed when the COVID-19 pandemic delayed this film for 2 years before generations of children were able to see this in the big screen. They could've done a VOD release like Trolls World Tour and The King of Staten Island, but the studios knew viewers deserved a big experience. While this doesn't feel grand like past films, the directing team of Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson & Jonathan del Val do pull it off in making an overall fun feature. The animation reminds me of Monsters University where it is vibrant enough with its colors to feel exciting. I was very surprised on how this one retcons what we saw last time, whereas Gru is a 70s child instead of a 60s child as shown before. I refuse to believe he was held back because he looks the same age in comparison. It definitely feels like a rebooted origin if Stuart still has a Scarlet Overkill lunchbox after what happened last time and Gru doesn't mention how they met in the UK. Speaking of which, with Pierre Coffin always coming back to voice the entire race of minions, you know there's gonna be a lot of laughs from start to finish. We definitely a fair share of it when it came to the plane hijack, learning kung fu overnight, Stuart laying an egg and the chatty Otto being able to do the stunt that killed Evil Knievel while still constantly pedaling to reach the stone. I'm surprised he isn't an official speedster like Sonic the Hedgehog. And every costume they choose to dress up easily gets my funny bone because they don't debate on which roles to do, they just do it and that's just simple hilarity to me. Putting aside all the laughs, I think the reason viewers choose to come back to this one would be because it is able to teach the lesson that even the smallest can achieve great things no matter how high the stakes are against them. As long as you believe in the dream with all your heart, it can come true. This is the journey between both Gru and the minions as they both have big dreams to fulfill. The minions are born with the purpose to satisfy others, which is why it means the world for them to satisfy Gru however they can. When Gru admits they're letting him down, all they want to do is redeem themselves and they pulled it off exponentially when getting out of their comfort zones via kung fu. And it was pretty cool for the iconic Michelle Yeoh to play Master Chow for being an individual patient enough to teach the basics to the minion trio. It's honestly still a surprise for Steve Carell to stick around in voicing the young Gru and nails it in being as squeaky as we remember and expect because we wouldn't have it any other way. In a world where there are no heroes, Gru's big dream was to be a villain. Since we're reminded of his neglectful mother (Julie Andrews), it was easy for him to become so corrupted. He has this aspiration for villains like the Vicious 6 due to how bold they're willing to go. Although they responded to his actions as violently as you'd predict from legit villains, it only proves he can be as bold as them. The late Alan Arkin was a great choice as Wild Knuckles for nailing it as a petty guy who still prefers sharing the glory. Since he lives in a dangerous world, he's never respected enough to have others stay by his side. With it happening to him twice in a row, it was pretty easy for him to be skeptical towards Gru. With the child actually having his back when saving him from his own pet crocodiles, he was willing to show him the ropes and return the favor. It's visible that he maintained an everlasting impact in his life as the very first film shows him to have his croc-themed couch and even though he's seemingly not around by then, it's a certainty he'd be proud of the decisions he made as an adult. Before Vector, Gru's first rival was not one person but one gang who made an impact wherever they went. Taraji P Henson made Belle Bottom stand out the most compared to the others because she presented her to be ambitious enough to be so immoral to get what she wanted. She wanted power and was willing to kill for it which made it easy to be intimidated of her. Luckily, Gru and the minions stopped her and the group before it could get any worse. Gru's original intentions for it may be for the sake of superiority, but at least we know it sets up a path of more mature choices by adulthood. Having said all that I've said to explain all I can say to defend this movie, there are still so much things bothered me more than the continuity error. Like for instance, I know we can't take family films too serious compared to live action blockbusters but do you expect me to be amused when an AVL agent literally chooses to pull a finger gun on Belle when he uses a finger gun rather than an actual blaster used in the climax? None of the other agents are armed either in the opening which is dumb because they know how dangerous Belle is. I even thought it was dumb for WK to abandon the map and his jetpack after finding the location of the stone when he could've used either to better his chances against the booby traps he dealt with. It even surprises me how invulnerable he was to survive a fall so high from the sky and dragon breath afterwards. I can't believe he's dead by the time Gru is an adult if he can overcome it like he's freaking Deadpool. The same goes with Nun-chuck not having a scratch on her after a car is thrown at her. And if WK's got five hands to outsmart his own goons in combat training, someone should just tell me he's an alien because I don't believe we're just seeing his feet in the air while he's levitating. And honestly, why does Otto have braces? I don't even care if the Grus paid for it or not. The minions never had dental issues before, so I don't understand why any of them needed braces at this point in their lives, especially if they're immune to torture as shown in the 2015 film. If I got to go deep into design flaws, it has to be Gru's house because I don't understand how his bathroom is the size of a kitchen for crying out loud and it doesn't look high enough to go upstairs. And how easy is it for the minions to clean their goggles? If mud can slip off for Otto so fast, it's crazy how long paint was able to stick for Stuart until he gets chased away. If the heat of the sun and the use of a handkerchief helped him out, it wouldn't hurt to show that. All of these design flaws bother me more than not ever seeing the door to WK's bedroom. And the pool is only added to the backyard after the minions retreat. I'm not even impressed with seeing the various custom vehicles the V6 have because we only see them once in their vow to pursue Gru and that's it. They're not in the background of the climax and it's pointless to show that off if they can all fit onto Belle's flying car. And how exactly did the minions avoid getting arrested for hijacking a plane? They're still villains at this chronological point so it's odd we don't see how they evaded the cops no matter how hilarious the joyride was for them. Moving on, why didn't Gru take the key from Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) before he went up the stairs? If the goal was to steal from the vault, he should've taken it first. Lastly, I thought it was dumb for WK to be present at his fake funeral in the same clothes he was wearing the night of the Chinatown fiasco because that and having the minions help him fake his death is like asking to get caught because the latter was totally playing with fire when one fell out of the banana filled casket. However, I still this movie is fine for what it is after ignoring all said flaws. In short, Minions: The Rise of Gru is a fun animated film for letting loose with the unorganized mayhem. If you enjoyed this kind of entertainment like before, I don't see a reason to skip this.
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