All Reviews

Despicable Me
---
Before I review this movie, I want to give background on why I would want to rewatch this movie. I was six years old when Despicable Me came out. When the second movie came out, the song Happy by Pharrell Williams was the theme song of my school's standardized testing week, year after year. So this movie franchise has kind of grown up with me. But I only watched the first two, and I don't really remember either of them so I decided to give them another look.

Based on what I know about the movies, I am hoping to watch a film about an adoptive father figuring out how to care for his daughters, meanwhile he steals the moon or something. I recently listened to the song from the fourth movie and besides it being very good, it is hinting toward an arc about Gru needing to give up his evil ways for his family's benefit.

With all of this in mind, I just wanted to give the movie another chance to enter my brain. I hope the fact that I am not a minion-obsessed five year old won't hinder my enjoyment of it.

---
I really enjoyed watching this movie. At first I was kind of on the fence about watching the sequels (on the one hand, the song from the fourth movie kind of convinced me to rewatch the movie, but on the other hand if it was really hard to watch, I was okay stopping after this one). But I will probably continue watching.

Overall, this movie touched on topics such as getting older in a society that focuses to younger people and the pressure from yourself and others to live your life a certain way. The movie showcased the former using comparative imagry - one example being the difference in the two main villians' ships. Gru's ship looks old and rugged, which is contrasted by younger villian Vector's ship which looks sleek and modern.


Spoiler Alert!


This movie's start seems to follow an idea that was later echoed by The Good Place's director Michael Schur -- No torture is too small. Gru's actions throughout the beginning of the film all lean evil, even if that is not the main point of the action originally. For example, it wasn't too important what he pretended his job was at the adoption agency. He chose to go dressed as a dentist, something that notoriously scares children. This version of Gru doesn't last too long unfortunately. I was disappointed in his initial appearance with the girls and how quickly his scary front went away.

One scene that I want to point out specifically is the iron maiden scene. In this seen, one of the children, Edith, steps inside of an iron maiden and presumably blood trickles out of the bottom. Seconds later, it is revealed that the iron maiden actually just stabbed her juice box, but this scene is so cool. They unfortunately would probably not be able to show something like that in current movies.

The animation style is good for its time. I appreciated the attention to detail. For example, when Gru is reading the children a bedtime story, the book has distinct pages that are accurate to his page turns. The music in this movie was fairly done. The score itself wasn't amazing or anything, but the music knew when to get dramatic and when to calm down.

One thing I really pay attention to in movies is how much they hold the audience's hand. One scene that demonstrates this principle for this movie is the scene where Vector goes to the dance recital to kidnap the three girls. The movie chose not to show that scene in its entirety, simply alluding to what will happen. This, in my opinion, delivers a stronger payoff when Gru finds the ransom note.

Let's talk minions. The minions were obviously placed in the movie to cater to a younger audience, but that doesn't make them uninteresting. One thing that I noticed is how far the minions are willing to go for Gru. It is implied through the movie that the minions all have their own non-work lifes and are here by choice. They constantly act as the testing dummies for Gru's weapons, and all fling themselves off of buildings and planes to catch him when he falls. I think it's safe to say that Gru's minions are willing to die for him. At the end of the movie, one minion is trapped on the moon with Vector. My prediction is, I want that minion to become evil - or, since he is already evil working for Gru, just generally on the antagonist's team. I think that would be very interesting.

I'll end my review with one more short critique. I wish that at the end of the film, the girls (or at least just Margo) were afraid of heights. Their big trust-redeeming moment with Gru had them danggling off of a plane. I think it would have been a nice detail to show that that moment really affected them.



Thank you for reading! This is the first time ever I have written out a review like this. Hopefully I will get better at formatting and such. Let me know what you think of this series of movies, and tell me what I should watch next.