Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

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By now, I think it's probably safe to say that the Minions are typically seen as one of two things - adorable, innocent and fun or irritating, invasive and simply there for the cash-in. I tend to lean a little more towards the former, although with the full realization that indeed, these little yellow fellows are money makers and that's generally the reason these films get any sort of mileage anymore. At no point was it more obvious than the two years between the last 'Minions' movie of 2015, and 'Despicable Me 3' of 2017.

Thankfully, this one managed to come along after a respectable five year hiatus, and actually make us care about Gru (Steve Carell) again for the first time since probably 'Despicable Me 2'. While the Minions do play their titular part as expected, the story is much more about, well, the rise of Gru. It's actually a pretty good example of a trailer that delivers all the Minion madness we've come to expect from these films, but the final product ends up much better than we thought it was going to be. And it fits quite nicely in between 'Minions' and the first 'Despicable Me' - arguably the lowest and highest points of the series, respectively.

Here, we go back to 1976 when Gru, at just 11 years old, aspires to one day become a supervillain. His first step to success was to hire the Minions to assist him in his work. From there, Gru eventually receives an invitation to audition for the five remaining supervillain members of The Vicious 6; Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), a disco-themed villain who has replaced their former leader; Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), said former leader; Jean-Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who has a big lobster claw for a right arm; Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), a roller skating champion; Stronghold (Danny Trejo), the obvious brute; and Nunchuck (Lucy Lawless), an old nun and master of the nunchaku.​

Due to Gru's young age, he's taken as a joke rather than any sort of contender for the 6th member. However, in the same room lies the famous Zodiac Stone. In an attempt to prove himself worthy to join the group, with the help of Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob (again, all Pierre Coffin), Gru manages to steal the Zodiac Stone, giving it to a Minion named Otto for safe keeping. But when Otto trades the stone for a pet rock, a chain of events begins to unravel to truly test Gru's talents.

When considering these movies, I have pretty much felt that over time, since the original, they have been taking a bit of a downhill turn. It really did turn into capitalizing on cuteness rather than bringing in any sort of real character development or, again, the contrast the first movie had. I keep bringing that up in this series' reviews, I know, but it (and even the second to some degree) did such a good job of making us smile while also wondering if the movie really "went there" with some of the dialogue and imagery. There as a soft edginess to them. Thankfully, this actually brings some of that back, and things feel as fun as they once were.

I think the two thing that truly fuelled this movie for me were a combination of things within the film and unassociated with the film. This movie came along in July of 2022, so even though things were a bit safer for us at the time, Covid was still around, and a lot of us were always looking for ways to brighten our day. With that five-year gap, despite the Minions getting a bit out of hand before, speaking for myself, the were welcomed back into my life with open arms. I never did hate the little guys, even if they got to be a little much.

Within the film, on the other hand, the biggest thing the film has going for it is probably its voice-casting. It felt like quite the large coming together of famous names to cover some interesting characters, and I haven't even mentioned that other voices include Michelle Yeoh, Will Arnett, and the return of Russell Brand as Nefario and Julie Andrews as Gru's Mom (who I've somehow never mentioned until now). On top of that though, the film also provides a good and fun origin story for Gru, and things feel a bit more like they used to. I might even go so far as to rank this my second-place choice of the series.

4/5 

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