‘Despicable Me 4’ Review – Beating A Dead Minion

Seven years after Despicable Me 3, Despicable Me 4 opens with Gru (Steve Carell) cooperating with the AVL (Anti-Villain League) as he crashes a villainous school reunion (Class of ’85) where his arch-rival Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) is receiving the award for Best Pupil. Maxime also has a girlfriend named Valentina (Sofia Vergara), who adds nothing to the film or storyline.

Maxime reveals that he is almost entirely a human-sized cockroach (apart from his head) and intends to use the power of roaches in his current evil plan. After being foiled by Gru and the AVL, Maxime is sent to prison but swears revenge on Gru.

A short time later, Maxime breaks out of prison as Gru, Lucy (Kristen Wiig), Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan), and Gru’s infant son Gru Jr are all forced to go into witness protection.

Three Minions can go with Gru and his family while the rest remain with the AVL. Five of them take a super serum and become Mega-Minions.

Co-directed by Chris Renaud (Despicable Me 1-2, The Secret Life of Pets 1-2) and animator Patrick Delage (Despicable Me 1-2, WALL-E) and co-written by Ken Daurio (Despicable Me 1-3, Migration) and Mike White (Migration, The Emoji Movie), Despicable Me 4 is a formulaically exhausting sequel that relentlessly milks an already stretched out franchise.

The highlight of the film is its homage to blockbuster movies. Lucy, Edith, and Agnes try to outrun a hair client that Lucy accidentally wronged. Lucy is assigned as a hairdresser when she gets her new identity and mangles some poor woman’s hair. That same woman chases Lucy and the kids down in the grocery store like the T-1000 from Terminator 2 and its musical theme.

One of the Mega-Minions has stretchy powers like Mr. Fantastic and stops a train like Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2 but with a much sillier result.

The karate instructor, Sensei O’Sullivan (Brad Ableson, co-director of Minions: The Rise of Gru), is a humorous character, but the downside is he is so similar to the Death Kwon Do instructor from Regular Show. Their voices are almost the same, their appearances are nearly identical, and their cut from the same cocky-demeanor cloth is undeniable. It’s not unlikely that it’s a coincidence, but if it isn’t another deliberate tribute then it’s just sad.

It seems like so much is happening with the story in Despicable Me 4. Gru is juggling a rivalry with Maxime, there are their new identities, attempting to deal with their new neighbors, and the Mega-Minions being the worst superheroes ever.

Maxime’s big thing is he develops a gun that turns people into cockroaches. It could have been more interesting than it was, but he only shoots two people with it during the film. His revenge revolves around kidnapping Gru Jr, who hates Gru and loves Lucy. There’s also some fourth side storyline where Gru struggles to bond with his son.

If that wasn’t enough, Gru’s new neighbors are the Prescotts. Poppy Prescott (Joey King) is a bossy girl around the same age as Margo, and her defining quality is that she has braces and a lisp. She’s obsessed with her phone and is the only person who knows how to use the internet because she’s the only one who figures out Gru’s real identity. Welcome to the fifth side storyline when Poppy blackmails Gru into doing a heist.

As a 90-minute film, there’s no way that all of these storylines can satisfyingly conclude without feeling rushed or underdeveloped. So Despicable Me 4 doesn’t even try to resolve much of anything apart from Gru’s relationship with his son and whatever he has going on with Maxime. Everything else basically implodes on itself or is forced into one of the other storylines.

As the sixth film in the Despicable Me franchise, Despicable Me 4 confirms that the charm and entertainment value of Gru and the Minions have plummeted. This film isn’t funny since the Minions have devolved into even more obnoxious yellow turds that spout gibberish and do nothing but destroy their surroundings and try to be cute about it.

The humor in the film is essentially ‘piss people off and then do something heartfelt to win them over.’ Fall to the ground, go boom, show your butt, and fart, then you’ll win the audience over.

Take away its nostalgia bait formula, referencing other films, and recycled gags, and Despicable Me 4 is nothing more than a colorful and hellish cacophony. This film is torture disguised as family entertainment: a Lament Configuration Box that even Pinhead wouldn’t open. The Minions have officially been bled dry.