Despicable Me 4, 2024.
Directed by Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage.
Featuring the voice talents of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Sofía Vergara, Joey King, Stephen Colbert, Chloe Fineman, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Polan, Pierre Coffin, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Jason Segel,, Benjamin Bratt, Trey Parker, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Taraji P. Henson, and Russell Brand.
SYNOPSIS:
Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.
Illumination is aware that some (probably the majority) moviegoers showing up to Despicable Me 4 don’t actually care about catching up with reformed supervillain Gru (still voiced by Steve Carell), his crime-fighting wife Lucy (once again voiced by Kristen Wiig) and their children which now includes a baby boy currently embracing the misbehaving side his father gave up. Case in point (and this is some inside baseball for how press screenings function): before the film started, there was a promotional image on screen exclusively focused on the goofball Minions. There wasn’t a single trace of the actual main characters since the yellow mischief-maker sidekicks have essentially taken over the franchise. Containing major storylines for them in movies specifically branded about them is no longer enough.
Directed by Chris Renaud (returning to the series) alongside Patrick Delage (with a screenplay from Ken Daurio and Mike White), Despicable Me 4 splits up the two attractions; the family must relocate under aliases to hide from the nefarious cockroach-obsessed Maxime Le Mal (one of the few compliments there is to pay here is that Will Ferrell’s is somewhat undetectable putting on a French accent), whereas the Minions have been selected for a top-secret government program that turns a select five (the most popular ones) into familiar superheroes (one of them is rock-based and one wonders how much of a case Marvel would have in taking legal action.)
The filmmakers lazily use these developments for a series of “homages” that also feel like blatant plagiarism, mimicking everything from the classic Spider-Man 2 train rescue to bizarrely portraying a grocery-shopping elderly woman with a grudge against Lucy as a T-1000, animated to do the iconic running with a reworked version of the classic score playing. It feels like no one actually cared about even trying to be creative. There are scenes involving the Minions that play like there were intended to be fucking branded TV commercials for products that presumably fell through, retooled into something non-distinct and even more soulless.
Even when Despicable Me 4 does focus on the heroic family, those results are also disjointed, as if the filmmakers are desperately trying to come up with things for the characters to do to fill up the 90 minutes intended to distract children without an ounce of substance. One of Gru’s daughters expresses being uncomfortable giving others a fake name, which could have been an intriguing dynamic to explore with something to say about the line between lying and protecting oneself. Here, it turns into a horrendously unfunny scene involving an overweight sensei, using his size as an avenue for cheap laughs.
Meanwhile, Gru finds himself blackmailed by the next-door neighbor’s (voiced by Stephen Colbert) daughter (voiced by Joey King), who has aspirations of becoming a great thief. The neighbors are mostly vain and self-absorbed, punctuated with a cringe needle-drop. Again, it’s all pointless antics sucking up time until a climactic showdown between Gru and Maxime. Admittedly, a laugh will come through every once in a while. The Minions can also be funny when the film uses their shenanigans for something related to the plot or what the other characters are doing rather than irreverent pandering.
Genuinely impressive and detailed animation also doesn’t mean a damn thing when the aesthetic itself continues to be the generic par for the course with illumination. Weapons here are as familiar as they come, such as a raygun turning its target into humanoid cockroaches, which sounds more visually exciting than it is. To say that Despicable Me 4 is going through the motions would be an understatement. The film is despicable alright.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
