A Despicable FilmGru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal.
To be perfectly honest, the trailer for Despicable Me 2 did not leave me feeling confident about it. The impression I got was that this would be the typically unfunny, poor animated sequel that can't match the first film. Thankfully, this mostly isn't the case.
Where the film succeeds is in its moments of Gru and his adopted daughters. From the opening moments at a birthday party and with Gru substituting for the recently-cancelled entertainer, it never ceases to be heartwarming, adding to the films great charm. Enter Agent Lucy Wilde, played by Bridesmaids Kristen Wiig, whose character proves a welcome addition. What's not welcome, however, is the obligatory romance subplot between her and Gru, which feels tacked on.
| Gru suddenly gone off having grapes |
The humor is mixed, rarely managing to be laugh out loud funny. It does manage to be genuinely funny regularly, such as a persons interesting choice for a guard dog, or Gru playing the overprotective father. However, it also regularly becomes eye-rollingly unfunny, choosing to rely on getting laughs from things such as fart humor, someones last name including the word 'Bottom' and a Minion showing his arse.
The Minions have not changed from how they were in the first film, so if you found them annoying, prepare to suffer from many appearances from them, but if, like me, you loved them and found them charming, prepare for every scene of theirs to be a delight.
Overall, Despicable Me 2 was not as bad as I feared it would be. It's just a shame the humour was so lacking and the romantic element didn't feel more organic. If you want a good animated film from this year to watch though, I'd suggest The Croods over this.
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