The first 'Despicable Me' pretty much owned
me. I tried to resist it, though the concept of an evil
dude as the star of a children's movie was intriguing, but by
the time little Agnes (Elsie Kate-Fisher) got that fluffy
unicorn, I was done. That movie made a few dollars so a
sequel was completely unavoidable, this much we know, and now
we have 'Despicable Me 2'. The thing is Gru (Steve
Carell) isn't all that despicable anymore. Nobody is
really. Which kind of removes the little edge that the
original movie had going for it. The sequel is still
entertaining enough, and I'm sure kids will lap it up and have
their room littered with stuffed minions, and while Agnes
still owns me, the franchise itself doesn't own me anymore.
A few years have passed since we last checked in on Gru and
his girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and
the afore mentioned Agnes, still ages 12, 9 and 6 since CGI
children can't age, and life is good. In fact when we
check on The Family Gru, Agnes is having another 6th birthday
party.
But there's trouble looming. Kind of. Not
really. After this party Gru is kidnapped by AVL agent…
Anti Villain League if you must know… Lucy Wilde (Kristen
Wiig) who scurries him away to their secret lair to offer him
a job. Lucy tazed him to do this which seemed like a
clear violation of Gru's civil rights, but I guess the AVL
falls under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security so anything
goes. Regardless AVL head Mr. Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan)
has requested Gru's assistance in finding a lethal secret
formula, stolen by some mysterious evil dude, and if you want
to find an evil dude, who better than a former evil dude to
track down this evil dude? Gru declines as he is a
father and boutique jelly maker and has little time for this
kind of nonsense.
But not so fast! It seems being a
boutique jelly maker lacks the spark that a former super
villain needs to get through the day, and coupled by the fact
that his mentor Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) has quit the good
guy life to pursue other evil endeavors, Gru is back in the
game, but this time as a good guy.
As the story goes, Gru along with Lucy and the minions, open
up a bakery in the local mall as the trail has led them to
believe that the evil dude has setup shop there. Gru
believes this evil dude is kindly Mexican restaurateur Eduardo
(Benjamin Bratt) or as Gru knew him, El Macho, the most macho
villain who ever lived. But El Macho allegedly died
while air surfing a shark into a live volcano.
Regardless of all of that, there are other issues Gru is
dealing with such as Margo discovering boys and most
importantly, Gru has discovered that Lucy has taken control of
his heart. Awwww.
Eventually all this craziness will come to a head as our bad
guy will be revealed, the minions will be in the thick of his
evil plan, and Gru will have to risk life and limb to save his
one true love. Awwww.
So there are a couple of holdovers from the first 'Despicable
Me' which we are glad didn't get discarded in this new film,
such as Russell Brand's voicing of Dr. Nefario. In the
history of voice overs done by actors in animated movies,
Brand's Dr. Nefario is near the top of my list. Also, we
are glad that we still got Agnes and her preoccupation with
fluffy unicorns. Additions that made us appreciate this
film, though few in relation to the original, would include
The Minions unintelligible vocal rendition of the song 'I
Swear'. The fact that it was unintelligible made this
the best version of this song ever performed. Sorry All
4 One.
It's the omissions, at least for me, that made this sequel not
nearly as much fun to sit through. I mean Gru isn't
despicable anymore. Nobody is really. El Macho,
maybe a little bit, but the slightly subversive tone and
clever humorous digs that were in the first movie were
completely absent in this one. Even the girls, who we
admit managed to worm their way into my heart in the first
movie, didn't have an awful lot to do in this one. In
fact, there is no real focus in this movie. A little bit
of villainy, a little bit of fatherhood, a little bit of
minion hijinks, and a little bit of love for Gru near the end
of the movie. Fill in the blanks in-between with a few
gags here and there. Basically, after the first movie
there is no real logical place for this sequel to go, and
still manage to be a legitimate 'Despicable Me' movie.
All that being said, at the end of the day this is a movie for
children and I do believe it does succeed at that. At
least the kids in the audience I was at seemed to enjoy it an
awful lot. But then the fart gun did get the biggest
laughs so… you know… kids. But they liked it and that's
all that matters, to be honest with you. Yes, I
recognize this sequel as a shameless money grab, and the early
tally shows it's also hugely successful at that as well, and
sure I would've enjoyed a movie on par with the original, but
I'm not arguing with seven year olds laughing at a fart gun.
