Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of July 1, 2024
Despicable Me 4
Rated PG for action and rude humor
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%
In Theaters
It’s been seven years since the last Despicable Me film ( for which I honestly can’t remember anything about), and Gru (voiced again by Steve Carrell) and family are forced into witness protection when a supervillain named Maxime (voiced by Will Ferrell) who Gru put in prison, escapes with an intent to seek a brutal revenge. While trying to live inconspicuously in his new home and community, Gru gets bored and attempts to do some side missions, while some of his minions are subjected to a treatment which turns them into a cross between the X-Men and The Fantastic Four. When Maxime eventually discovers where Gru’s new location is, a Battle Royale commences. There’s not a lot of great storytelling on display here, just as in the other films. The plot is weak and old, and the dialog is neither funny nor clever. In fact it is quite the opposite. They think they are being clever which makes many moments rather painful, at least for adults. For kids, it should still be a fun time, filled with lots of loud action, silly minion humor and enough familiarity to bring smiles to faces. I just wish Universal was ambitious enough to create a good four-quadrant addition to their franchise. Making the film great for kids but only nearly tolerable for adults, is just disappointing and frustrating. Pixar did a great job of this with their recent sequel Inside Out 2 – and look how it is paying off. I’m sure that Despicable Me 4 will make a decent box office, but much of its business is going to be from audience members who wish they were in another room while watching. So once again, we get a film that falls short when it really doesn’t have to. C