Despicable Me 4 Review: Will This Be a Decent Minion Mayhem...Perhaps?
Copyright © Universal Pictures, Illumination
Title: Despicable Me 4
Director: Chris Renaud
Sequel to: Despicable Me 3
Release Date: July 3, 2024
Out of boredom, Illumination will mainly write another idea for this franchise, even though it has been milked to this point. Sure, they do have their other franchises, like The Secret Life of Pets and Sing, but this is the one that the company relies on the most. With that being said, let's see if Despicable Me 4, the latest Minion adventure, holds up to still be as jacked as its predecessors did! As expected, the movie became a box-office success by grossing $851 million worldwide, resulting in the movie presently holding the #3 rank of the highest-grossing films of the year. Just like Despicable Me 3, this movie got mixed reviews from critics for the lacking story and the messy screenplay. However, most audiences enjoyed the film because it hit it right with the animation, voice acting, and humor. Even though the story shows that this sequel should be the final film for the franchise at this point, Despicable Me 4 celebrates with a solid final heist to potentially end their mayhem.
Summary
After the events of Despicable Me 3, Gru (Steve Carrell) and his family welcome in Gru Jr. (Tara Strong), their baby son who is always up to messing around with his father. When a new nemesis, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), along with his girlfriend, Valentina (Sofía Vergara), vows to take revenge and plans to capture the baby, Gru is tasked with stopping him once and for all.
Reasons
Going to its spy profile, Despicable Me 4 has the skills of great animation, fun soundtrack, and talented voice-acting. In regards to its animation, this movie is coming from Illumination after all. Weighed up with the third movie, there is more detail and fluidity to make sure the franchise still looks up to date. In addition, the character designs still look appealing. Also, there are the new character designs which look creative, especially Poppy Prescott's design as she is marked with the modern teenager archetype. Like with all off the other Despicable Me films, the soundtrack is still fun to listen to. Of course, there are still the old songs but it has some new ones sprinkled in, most notably the K-Pop songs, "Boombayah" by Blackpink and "Dynamite" by BTS, which was a personally enjoyable aspect. However, the new original song for the movie, "Double Life" by Pharrell Williams, would be the best one because of its catchy beat and songwriting for the lyrics. This proves that Williams is still getting it with the songs. Before moving on to the mixed points, the voice-acting remains to be memorable after running on for fourteen years. Steve Carell makes yet another awesome voice performance as Gru. This goes the same for the other returning stars like Kristen Wiig as Lucy, Pierre Coffin as the Minions, and so on. Even the new actors, like Will Ferrell as Maxime Le Mal and Joey King as Poppy Prescott, are awesome as well. The former, Ferrell, did do a great job with the French accent.
Albeit being such a movie that is so good at marketing, Despicable Me 4 may not be the best yet at writing its references, characters, and humor. Since this is a potential finale to the franchise, the movie does the best it can with making a tribute to the previous films. Some do work but others do not. Most notably, the previous villains and supporting characters return, which can give off a tear. However, the villain returns were not executed well because they missed a point there. Next off, most of the characters were fun, while some others, mainly the newcomers, were written just to exist. Gru and Lucy are remaining to be the likable and charming as they always were in the past. The same goes for the Minions, even with some mutating into the all-new Mega Minions, for how they are remaining to be funny and chaotic, in perhaps a good way. The daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, are pretty good as well but they should have aged up. Seeing them all grown up as teenagers would have been interesting because it would show how far the franchise has come. As for the newcomers, they are not really the best they could be. The new supervillain, Maxime Le Mal, turned out to be a mid villain due to not a lot of proper character writing and backstory. Yes, the franchise can keep its trend of new villains going in the family's way. However, compared to the previous villains of the franchise, his French nature and cockroach trait is just what makes his character, along with the fact that he has a small conflict with Gru. Compare that to Kung Fu Panda 4, which wrote the Chameleon who has more fleshed-out backstory and character arc. This is not to say that he is a bad villain but this film just made him not that great. Putting that side, Poppy Prescott, is a fun and sweet sidekick for Gru. First, she starts off as dangerous but when she and Gru team up, it shows that Despicable Me did at least write a good anti-villain. As a final touch for the mixed traits, most of the humor can give off a chuckle, while the minority were either childish or just plain stupid. A little bit of the jokes that can give off a laugh. Alongside, the slapstick still remains because this is a trademark of the franchise. On the other hands, the jokes are mostly gags for the kids to enjoy, not for the adults. However, let's just make sure that Illumination can write at least some solid jokes that the family would laugh at.
Since it is not much of a great movie, Despicable Me 4 failed with the lacking story, fast pacing, and questioning story points. For the most part, Illumination tends to look for more ideas out of this franchise because that is their most famous one. Even if this is meant to be the finale, the story is yet another mission just for the movie, plus the franchise, to exist. Even though its the musical number trope used for its respective scene, the ending tribute did at least do something to end the franchise well. Let's hope Illumination comes up with a new story idea other than anything related to Despicable Me. Another problem that this movie has is its fast pacing. Yes, its runtime is fitting for anyone who has a lot on their plate, but that does not mean that fast pacing will lead to a good movie. The plot just moves on quickly without savoring any of the good moments. What it should do at the very least is add more character interaction or even more complexity to Gru's adventure. That way, the movie can tell the mission properly. Last off, some of the story points are rather questioning because their main part is to just exist. What is mostly something of this movie is that Gru and Lucy welcome in the baby, Gru Jr., but he is only there to be there. In addition, the girls are just in the movie to pander to the crowd. As said before, they would have aged up to be teenagers to prove that the franchise is indeed taking years after the previous installment. There is also a questioning point in the ending that somewhat contradicts the franchise. Well, the story can keep that but the ending would have been rewritten to another alteration that does mark the movie as the finale.
Conclusion
Although this movie is there only for marketing and advertisment campaigns, Despicable Me 4 does put a solid end to the franchise as a whole. Needless to say, the animation and soundtrack still hold up to cause the movie to be as great as it was for fourteen years. What this movie needs to fix is its writing because Illumination barely has any genius ideas left for this franchise. They can keep their tribute and mission but it would have connected to the story in a better way. As it is both released on digital and still playing in movie theaters, this is not much of a despicable pick. Just note that the previous movies, even including the third installment, have superior missions and Minion shenanigans, unless you are a devoted fan of the franchise as a whole.
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