Review of Despicable Me 2

In 2010, Despicable Me was a surprise hit. The animated movie surprised a lot of people, including me, by being a well-made movie that combined laughs with a heart-felt story on family. So the sequel, Despicable Me 2, has a lot to live up to.

After seeing it, I’m glad to say the sequel not only live up to the original, it exceeded it by quite a margin. Yes, Despicable Me 2 is one of those rare sequels that’s better than the original. 

Set three years after the first film, former super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) is retired from the villain game and now plays doting father to his 3 girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher). However his retirement was soon destroyed when the Anti-Villain League (AVL) forcibly recruit him to help them find a stolen mutating chemical compound named PX-41, which could transform living things into indestructible killing machines. Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), the AVL agent who abducted Gru, became his liaison with the AVL and soon became his love interest.

Now directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud had obviously saw the performance of the first film and learned lessons from it. They saw what worked, what did not, and put together a film that shamelessly milked the success of the first film.

Basically, that meant minions, minions and more minions!

The hilarious, adorable yellow…creatures are the true star of the film. The minions are going to have a spin-off film (Minions) next year and after Despicable Me 2, I can see why. Their wacky hijinks are central to the story and they gave the film a fun energy. You have minions in a music video; minions on the beach etc; and it worked! 

The minions were a comedy goldmine. So much so that I found Despicable Me 2 to be much funnier than Despicable Me. Despicable Me was a delightfully funny film; Despicable Me 2 is a laugh-out loud riot. Like I said earlier, the wacky minions’ antics were key to this.

Also the focus on the love story between Gru and Lucy was fun. I admit this was mainly due to the quirky character of Lucy, but having a love story fresh out the character of Gru and gave the film a needed seriousness amid all the laughs.

Of course, the movie wasn’t perfect. As fun as the love story between Gru and Lucy was, it was also slightly nonsensical. When Lucy suddenly discovered she loved Gru on the plane, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief was required.

Also some characters got the short end of the stick in this one. The 3 girls of Gru, who were the central characters in the first film, had little to nothing to do in this film. Edith was practically a wallflower with Margo and Agnes little better than that.

Still, I have to recommend you to go see Despicable Me 2. It’s a very funny film and easily the best comedy movie I had seen this year. For a funny, fun time, this is the film for you.