A few Fridays ago, Jamie and I decided to wander over to the cinema after a reaallllyy long and stressful week for a little bit of mindless, childish entertainment.
DM4 has been in the cinema for months now and I can only assume this is because of the summer holidays, however I am glad it was still available to watch. This was just the ticket to help us relax ahead of the weekend and so we settled into our seats with some Nachos and pick & mix ready for some mayhem courtesy of the little yellow creatures in denim.
This was not my favourite instalment of the DM franchise I have to admit. I thought it was better than DM3, but still not as good as the first two movies. This also very much felt like a goodbye to the Gru family, but more on that later.
In this movie we follow Gru as he goes to a reunion at his old villain school. Here, he takes down his school enemy Maxime (played by Will Ferrell) and following the ultimate escape of this slightly more terrifying villain, has to be put into witness protection.
The movie follows the Gru family as they try to adapt into the modern fancy suburb life. Lucy is a hairdresser- this goes wrong, Gru is a solar panel salesman- this goes wrong, and the girls start a new school with their new identities, this also goes wrong especially as Agnes has an issue with her new name.
We also see a vast reduction in Minions due to the move. The family have their pets taken away to help protect them, and also their minions. They are allowed to keep three who are the baby pit crew- oh! That's right, Lucy and Gru also have a new addition to the family, Gru Jr.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Minions are employed by the AVL and cause absolute havoc, inclusive of the new and improved Minions who have been given super powers to protect Gru and struggle to use them.
While Gru settles into his new boring life his identity is rumbled by his new neighbour's daughter, Poppy. She is a villain in training and blackmails Gru into helping her complete a heist to get into Gru's old school. He agrees reluctantly and this is what leads to his family being plunged into danger. Poppy drops her villainous ways to help save the Gru family and while Maxime is successful in his ploy of kidnapping Gru Jr, all comes good in the end.
Now the reason I think this is a potential goodbye to the Gru clan is this, everyone from the previous movies- including the Minion spin offs, were in it. It was all tied neatly into a bow with a sing song so the actors didn't have to come back, but their characters were present. I'm talking Dru, Mama Gru, Dr Nefario, Bratt, Victor, El Macho, Scarlet Overkill & Herb, The Vicious 6, and god knows who else. This was too neat to not have been a goodbye. I think we are leaving Gru behind.
Granted, the Minions no longer need Gru to be successful, we know this already. But he is such an integral part to their origin that it is kinda sad to potentially be saying goodbye to the character. I think perhaps now the Minions have their own AVL branch we will be exploring that avenue, but only cameos by Gru and co will be expected going forward.
Despite this of course, DM4 was a decent tribute to the previous installments and I'm not mad if this is the last one. Even I have to admit that maybe this franchise has gone on too long, and while I love the Minions, you cant have 20 films. it may be time to let go and just produce a cosy Minion short every holiday like Toy Story do. No one wants an Alien or King Kong type of deal, there is only so many movies you can do before a franchise gets boring.
The movie overall was full of laughs as expected and was a nice Sunday afternoon movie with the family. Kid and adult friendly, there wasn't really any bad points to this other than the fact we have another set of Minion names to memorise. What happened to Bob, Stuart, Kevin, Otto and any others I dont know, but we now have other minions with equally mundane names. I enjoyed this film and it hit the spot, but I cant say I'd be overly interested in seeing it again.
Overall then, I give Despicable Me 4 a 6/10. It was fun, filled with Minions, and typical of the franchise, but it wasn't anything special. This movie didn't stand out in anyway, it just was and I think that is why it is an acceptable end for the DM franchise.
Have you seen this movie? Share your thoughts on my socials!
Comments
Post a Comment