Despicable Me 4

Originally published Sep 11, 2024

Disclaimer: Mild spoiler warning ahead. Read at your own discretion.

Whenever I need some easy laughs and the occasional cute emotional beat, Despicable Me has always been a franchise I can more or less count on. With that said, Gru (Steve Carell) and the Minions’ (Pierre Coffin) latest outing, Despicable Me 4, while objectively enjoyable, has some glaring issues. 

The most apparent detriment to the movie is its scattershot writing. Gru and his family are forced into witness protection, yet there’s a stunning lack of tension or stakes for the first two acts. The bulk feels more like a series of loosely connected vignettes that feel better suited for episodes of a limited series than a movie. Gru spends most of the movie being tortured by his newborn son, whose predictable switch to liking his father feels incredibly sudden. As such, Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and the girls have little to no bearing on the plot. The new villain, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), sorely lacks the presentation of the villains who came before him, feeling more like an undercooked Doofenshmirtz-cockroach hybrid. With that said, Ferrell’s casting wasn’t squandered like those of fellow cast mates Sofía Vergara and Stephen Colbert. Lastly, the final confrontation felt incredibly rushed and anticlimactic, even by this franchise’s standards.

On the positive end of things, the Minions are once again the highlights of the film, providing plenty of slapstick while also subtly teasing superhero movie fatigue. Additionally, this movie’s existence is justifiable simply for giving us Pharrell’s “Double Life.”. While nothing spectacular, new additions like aspiring villainess Poppy (Joey King) and Gru’s villain high school were welcome. Finally, the ending curtain call, featuring nearly every major character in the franchise, really hit home how long this franchise has come. Overall, Despicable Me 4 is undoubtedly messy, but it isn’t offensively so.

Rating: 5.5/10