As a fan of the Despicable Me series, heading into the theater to witness the third chapter in this series (not counting The Minions spin-off), The Movie Mensch was quite excited. See, there is something magical and innately hilarious about Steve Carell in the part of Gru. The super villain has had his world view tamed by love — first by three adorable little orphaned little girls and then his partner Lucy (Kristen Wiig) at the agency charged with finding villains and putting their evil ways to an end.
All the while, his dependable Minions provide the big laughs to compliment the heart, intellectual chuckles and action throughout the rest of the last two Despicable Me movies.
Sadly, Despicable Me 3 goes completely off the rails. It forgets wholeheartedly what it is that makes it endearing and instead gives its audience a haphazardly put together picture that feels as if every single soul involved was mailing it in. Worse thing of all… it is boring.
This time out, Gru and Lucy are after their latest super villain, the former 80s child star-turned evil-doer Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker). He is trying to steal one of the world’s largest diamonds and our dynamic duo manages to stop him, but he gets away. Infuriated, their bosses at the Agency see this as the ultimate failure and despite years of successful service, fire them. Lost, Gru is tempted to return to the world of villainy. Aiding in that emotional journey is the discovery that he has a long lost twin brother. Gru and family head to meet his twin, Dru (also voiced by Carell), and is approached by his highly successful and downright dashing brother to aide him in “one last heist.”
It is here in the latter part of the first act and beginning of the second act that Despicable Me 3 completely becomes a patchwork of stories that seem utterly unconnected and even more sinfully, not tethered to any reality that exists in the world of Despicable Me that was set up in the last two films. It appears that writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio didn’t even bother to watch the first two films to see what it was that made them tick so well. Of course that is not the case, these two created the characters! It is a baffling turn of events.
Perhaps this is another case of the animation house Illumination letting the world know that “we are not Pixar.” Pixar always states, despite what cycle of a franchise they are on, that “story matters.” Some may argue that Cars 2 and Cars 3 slipped a bit in that notion, but for the large part, that statement resonates. Illumination (creators of Sing, The Secret Life of Pets) has had a success rate of late that is impressive, but their command of “the story” has not always been as sharp.
That is never been as true as it is with Despicable Me 3. For the first time in the series, we feel failed by Gru and company. Even the soundtrack by Pharrell is short changed by the Despicable Me 3 creative process. There are plenty of catchy and enjoyable jams on the score crafted by the talented musician. But the scenes where his music is utilized are so choppily edited that a flow never gets to happen and we never even come close to getting to the best part of the singer-songwriter’s songs. Again, it’s baffling.
Carell does some terrific work with two incredibly different vocal characterizations with Gru and Dru. These are twins who were separated at birth and as such their vocal tone would be different. Dru is not simply a Gru 2.0. It is still very much in the Gru vocal universe, but strikes out on an entirely different path. Wiig is fine, albeit underused and her storyline about seeking to be seen more of a mother to the three little girls seems to be missing that same emotional connection that Gru and the girls had in the first and second film. Yet another example of a bit of laziness on the part of all those involved in the creative end of things. The dots do not connect and as such, we simply do not care.
As we have repeatedly said here on The Movie Mensch, a film with a villain is only as good as its villain. In this case, Bratt is a bombastic waste of time. We never truly understand why he is doing what he is doing, even though it is laid out for his. The character is flat and that is astounding, given the immense talent possessed by the person behind it — South Park’s Parker! It should have been bouncing off the walls awesome and instead his character comes at us like a toy still stuck in its box.
When it comes to the audience that is targeted for these films, they may still enjoy seeing Gru do his things. The Minions, again, are the highlight of the film. But, that alone is not enough to make this film one to recommend.
Grade: C-