The release of “Despicable Me 4” was one of my most anticipated events this summer. After seeing the disappointing performance of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” on Broadway, I was looking forward to my favorite little Minions to rejuvenate my hope in the entertainment industry.
In a similar fashion to previous movies in the franchise, the plot of “Despicable Me 4” follows a roughly similar storyline — a mischievous villain is introduced and Gru has to save the world. Gru and his family, which now includes his son, are happily settled down at their home when Gru’s old classmate, Maxime Le Mal, sets out to ruin Gru’s life because Gru stole his song at the ninth-grade talent show.
Per usual, the highlight of the movie for me was the Minions themselves. Although I was missing the presence of my favorite trio — Kevin, Stuart and Bob — the introduction of more Minions was funny and a nice switch-up.
Aside from the few Minions that stayed with Gru throughout the movie, the rest of the Minions left on their own adventure to join the Anti-Villain League (AVT). After agreeing to an experimental serum, five Mega Minions were born, each with their own superpower — super strength, flight, laser vision, elasticity and a rock body.
In my opinion, the jumps between the Minions frolicking on their field trip to the AVT to Gru trying to live low with his family delivered plenty of light-hearted and funny moments throughout the movie.
Between the scenes of the hilarious Minions, Gru playing tennis at the country club and the heartfelt reunion between Gru and his son at the end of the movie, the overall plot was up to par with the other movies in the franchise.
Given my good impression of the movie, I was shocked to see the mixed reviews online. As of Oct. 16, the film had 87% on Fandango, 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.2/10 on IMDb, 3/5 on Common Sense Media and 3.7/5 on Google.
Especially with the light-hearted nature of this movie meant for children, I was shocked to see the number of one-star reviews. Countless people wrote paragraphs after paragraphs hating the apparently boring storyline and random scenes.
“This is only the second time I ever left cinema in the middle of a film, but it was truly so bad that we couldn’t deal with cringing anymore,” one review on Google said.
Although most of the negative reviews made valid points about the seemingly random scenes that didn’t add to the plot, in my opinion, the Despicable Me franchise is meant to be funny and carefree, and that’s exactly what the film delivered. They kept the unique and fun energy that the Minions brought while also introducing a new villain and offering a heartwarming ending, one where all the villains gathered together to sing with Gru and Maxime.
While I understand the point of analyzing and criticizing the movie that you paid good money to watch, I would argue that “Despicable Me 4” lived up to its expectations despite its minor storyline flaws and still delivered the right joy, heartfelt and funny moments that the Minions franchise is known for.
