Despicable Me 2

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Nick: Gru and his Minions return in Despicable Me 2, but this time as heroes. I honestly didn't catch what they were trying to stop, some sort of purple goo that turns cute bunnies into giant purple bunnies that growl, but the lack of plot won’t hurt the enjoyment you will have while watching the film.

Dustin: I also had a hard time trying to figure out the villain’s plan. He wants to take over the world, but by using a chemical that turns living organisms into mindless monsters who aren't really under his control. It’s kind of like the underpants gnomes from South Park. A: Turn animals into purple monsters. B: ? C: Take over the world.

Nick: Nice. Since Robot Chicken and Family Guy have grown in popularity there has been a shift in not caring about showing how A gets to B and then how B gets to C. I was watching This Is 40 the other day, and it just goes from scene to scene making you laugh, but the scene before rarely sets up the scene after. The same can be said here. Every scene solely exists to make you laugh.

Dustin: I think that was my main problem with this film. It did have a plot and twists, but there were some random gags that didn't advance the story or develop character. They were just pointless asides. As fun as they were, they shouldn't have been included.

Nick: This film really did feel more like the proposed Minions spin-off than it did a sequel to Despicable Me.

Dustin: I haven’t seen the first film, so I didn't really get the Minions. I understood Gru (Steve Carell) was a bad guy who’s now good, and I didn't have trouble understanding what was going on. The Minions just didn't do much for me, but I could understand the movie makers’ intent was to spotlight them. Their antics were funny at times, but I thought they could also be irritating and got too many scenes to themselves.

Nick: The Minions were understated in the first film, so they worked. In this film they are front and center, but don’t carry the plot at all, so they go unused. In the first film they were also used for their antics, but the film didn't focus on them. Now we have the minions Dave and Stuart, who the film follows as much as Gru's girls, but, like the girls, lack depth. I hope for the Minions spin-off they are able to develop an actual story and not just have cute creatures, that are meant to sell toys, doing adorable things.

Dustin: It sounds like I might like the first film better. Not only did this spend too much time on the Minions, it also relied too heavily on slapstick humor, which young children will laugh at, but adults taking them to the movies will find tedious. I don’t think kids’ movies need lowest-common-denominator humor to appeal to kids. Toy Story didn't have much of that, but it was still enjoyable and humorous.

Nick: To be honest, I enjoyed this film as much as I did Despicable Me, but for different reasons entirely. Despicable Me 2 has more laughs, while the original has an endearing plot that had me fall for it. My biggest problem, and this might be considered nit-picking, with animated films outside of Pixar and Studio Ghibli is lack of attention to detail. In this film, when Gru turns off the light after saying goodnight to the kids, I looked for the switch and didn't see it. While in the first film they did what lazy filmmakers do and forgo spatial awareness like when Gru is about to be killed he jumps into an air vent yet there was no vent there in the scene before. Maybe that just annoys me because I grew up admiring Pixar and, especially, Studio Ghibli.

Dustin: I agree the animation isn't quite as good in non-Disney/Pixar films. But it was still good here. I saw it in 2-D, but I could tell what was supposed to be 3-D, and I imagine it probably looked good in 3-D too.

Nick: The animation looks wonderful, but depth of detail is appreciated.

Dustin: I liked the characters and the animation of the characters for the most part. Gru's daughters were cute and enjoyable, and the relationship between Gru and Lucy developed nicely as well.  The studio made a good choice to make the characters look cartoonish and not too realistic, so we never got the “uncanny valley” feeling of Polar Express.

Nick: The relationship between Gru and his daughters was fantastic in the first film, but in this one, at least to me, they felt more like Minions. His oldest daughter, Margo, is in love with a boy, his second oldest, Edith, is a ninja in training, and his youngest, Agnes, just loves cuddly things. They don’t have much depth in this film. It was funny to realize while watching the second film that they all have what one would assume are “old lady” names. While I enjoyed the development of Gru and Lucy’s love story, I didn't really enjoy Kristen Wiig's voice work as Lucy.

Illustrating the theme that change is difficult, the filmmakers had Gru do some minor evil things that probably brought out the biggest laughs from me. His constant dismissal of his neighbor who kept trying to set him up with her friends was a nice touch to show him assimilating to normal suburban life.

Dustin: One thing I appreciated about this film that would be lost on the child demographic is that this movie played out a bit like a spy/techno thriller. They used some visual cues from Bond films, such as the submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me, and the cat-stroking villain from You Only Live Twice (although it’s not a cat here). There was also an especially funny callback to Entrapment.

Nick: The Sean Connery film? Which scene are you referring to?

Dustin: When Gru and Lucy break into the Eduardo’s restaurant, she suspects there may be a laser-triggered alarm, like in Entrapment, and blows smoke around the room to reveal the lasers. Gru correctly tells her a Mexican restaurant isn't going to have a laser-triggered alarm system. She blows around the smoke anyway, revealing nothing. The steady, distant angle made it look even more ridiculous, and it played well.

Nick: Was there not a scene in Steve Carell’s Get Smart that did the same thing? I feel as if that scene has been done a lot before, though I agree that it plays well here.

Dustin: They might have parodied it in Get Smart, and paid tribute to Steve Carell’s other movie by parodying it here too, but the first time I saw it was in Entrapment.

Would you recommend this movie?

Nick: Most assuredly. Film is first and foremost about entertaining, and Despicable Me 2 delivers that, but maybe with too much focus on minor characters such as the Minions.

Dustin: I would recommend it for children. The kids in the audience laughed a lot more than I did, and they aren't so demanding on things like plot. But this is a film the parents will enjoy sitting through as well.