Thanks for checking out our Despicable Me Review.
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Staring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig
Released: July 9th, 2010
THE GENERAL IDEA
For Gru, being a supervillain isn’t easy. And when new Villain Vector hits the scene he is threatened to be forgotten he tries to better his new nemesis. With the help of three orphan girls that he adopts and a legion of minions at his disposal, he plots to steal the moon and dethrone Vector as the new Emperor of Evil.
THE GOOD
The character voicing in this film is awesome. Normally I don’t care about celebrity voice actors unless they are bringing their own personality to the role. Steve Carrell KILLS IT as Gru. Aside from the character being written as so deliciously evil yet still not inappropriate for a kids film, Carrell adds so much personality and life to the role and you don’t even recognize him in the voice. He was awesome.
The story paces well and you really feel Gru’s pain of being bested by this young upstart, and you feel his heartstrings get tugged when the three orphan girls worm their way into his life.
The three orphan girls get their fair share of the spotlight too, and when Gru is stealing the scene its usually to get it back from these girls. Kristen Wiig leads the tiny trio with a lot of personality that is not standard Wiig. I try to dislike this girl, but she works more often than not.
And the Minions are amazing too. Their expressive slapstick comedy rocks and you can’t even tell what they are saying (unless you have the iphone app – more on that later). They add so much to the movie.
But the unique way that this film presents a pretty standard story of unexpected friendship and fighting for what matters most is presented with a bad guy vs bad guy kind of way. And crime clearly pays, as there is a Bank of Evil where the villains can get loans
THE BAD
Jason Segel. Every good movie needs an excellent villain and in a movie about competing villains, you need one villain to be a good villain against the villain you are rooting for. Segel isn’t it. He does fine with the voice casting, but every problem I have with this film involves his character.
If anything you might feel Gru’s frustration that THIS GUY is who will dethrone him. The world will forget about Gru because this douche took the spotlight? Tough gig.
But you just don’t feel like he is a suitable foe. You don’t buy into the world wanting to fear Vector instead. He is a whiney little boy shooting elastic bands at passing cars kind of threatening.
I just wasn’t buying him as a threat.
OVERALL
Gru/Carell steals the show, and the minions steal it from him. The kids are effective as well. Their interactions are this film and Vector is so very secondary. So while I just didn’t care for his character or his antics, he was neccessary. But the movie isn’t about him.
There is an iphone app that you can get that will translate their gibberish so you get more out of the film. Genius marketing. Lets encourage people to bring their iPhones to the theater as part of the film experience, right after that announcement that says the glow from your phone (and ringing etc) is disruptive to other patrons, so you should turn them off.
I give Despicable Me a 7.5 out of 10
