Family franchise
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Despicable Me 3
Directed by Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, Eric Guillon
Part of the Despicable Me series
Rated PG
Published 6.16.2017 Inquirer Libre, PH
Middle-of-the-road movies are hardest to review – there’s little to hate to rant against, and there’s not enough good stuff to praise at length. Despicable Me 3 is an entertaining, zippy, sometimes fun family movie that has closer ties with the first outing than the sequel. But really, I don’t think I need to still see another Gru movie around the time I retire, do I?
After quitting villainy in part One and joining the Anti-Villain League (AVL) in part Two, Gru (Steve Carell) and partner Lucy (Kirsten Wiig) are fired after failing to capture AVL’s most-wanted supervillain Baltazar Bratt (Trey Parker) – a former child superstar who never moved on after he hit puberty, resulting in the cancellation of his show. He should learn from our 90s actors here, some of whom appear in soaps twice a day.
Coincidentally, Gru and the entire family are invited to the palatial home of his long-lost brother Dru (also Steve Carell) who is bored from being a wealthy businessman and wants to learn super villainy from Gru. Gru agrees, with the intention of getting back at Balthazar and delivering him to the AVL. But before the brothers can succeed wth their plan. Balthazar kidnaps Gru’s young girls and begins his revenge on society using a giant robot of himself.
It’s a whole lotta messy plotting that goes from Gru and Lucy to Lucy and the girls to Gru and Dru and Gru versus supervillain Balthazar – but the core story where Gru and Lucy discover parenting and family is resonant and easily digestible for the young audience. This is an improvement-of-sorts from the whole forgettable business of part Two, but a welcome return to the tenderness that made the first part especially memorable.
I’m not sure if I like the idea to place Benjamin in a permanent 1980s pop soundtrack, these 80s jokes get tiring when most comedies these days refer to that wild and colorful decade. But as far as having a true 1980s pop soundtrack, DM3 is spot on with a Michael Jackson song in the beginning, and a Madonna song in the end. This movie better make money, because I’m sure those songs cost a lot in copyrights.
However, there needs no mention that the yellow Minions are in the movie again in humorous and mostly amusing off-beat situations – especially the whole studio lot chase scene which had the kid sitting in front of me in complete stitches and couldn’t stop from laughing. That’s the main reason that the yellow creatures got their own movie two years ago. That’s also a good sign that Illumination still knows how to keep the kids entertained.
acid reflects 
Leave a comment