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| photo courtesy of empirecinema.com.mt |
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Despicable Me 3 finds Gru (Steve Carell) down
on his luck: unable to stop the villainous escapades of Balthazar Bratt (Trey
Parker of South Park) and on the outs
with the Anti-Villain League. When long-lost twin brother Dru (also Steve Carell)
makes contact out of the blue, he offers Gru a chance at reclaiming his purpose
by returning to their family’s criminal lifestyle. It’s up to Gru to figure out
where his loyalty really lies… before Bratt unleashes his evil plot on
Hollywood.
This is one of those movies that works
as long as you don’t ask too much of it. The Despicable Me movies have never been exceptional, and their comedic
style definitely doesn’t approach the clever heights of, say, the recent Lego movies. But they work well enough
on their own turf, which consists mostly of slapstick, crude humor, and
schadenfreude. It’s silly, yes, but it’s good for a giggle or two from the under
10 crowd, and this film is no exception on that front.
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| photo courtesy of fandango.com |
In terms of story, Me 3 is definitely the weakest entry in the main series (excluding,
of course, Minions). The writers seem
to be out of interesting ideas—or they just mailed it in—because to a large
extent the movie just rehashes its predecessors’ greatest hits. There’s a lot
less heart and a lot more go-go.
The previous films took care to build
in some kind of moral growth for Gru (usually involving his familial responsibility),
but here there’s not much concern for character development for Gru or the
supporting cast, who get sidelined to small subplots. Dru’s addition to the mix
could have been fruitful, but it doesn’t ultimately lead to any significant
character moment.
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| photo courtesy of variety.com |
The best addition is Trey Parker’s
Balthazar Bratt, who joins the series’ wacky rogues’ gallery. Despicable Me is great when it dives
into the ridiculous gadgetry and pomposity of its supervillains, and so Bratt
is naturally good for a few laughs.
Interestingly, the movie does include
some rather odd insertions. It makes a conscious effort to connect to other
Illumination Entertainment flicks (does anyone else feel a Minionsverse coming on?) in small blink-and-you-miss-it moments,
but that’s not altogether unexpected. What is unexpected is a clear Trump
lookalike who makes a brief appearance—because everyone looks to Despicable Me for biting political
commentary—and an apparent jab at Pixar in the form of two clownfish who get
tossed around in the wake of Gru’s ship. We’ll have to see if Pixar can show
them up with Coco this November.
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| photo courtesy of hindustantimes.com |
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