Director: Chris Renaud
Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert, Sofia Vergara, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier, Chloe Fineman, Will Ferrell
Screenplay: Ken Daurio, Mike White
95 mins. Rated PG for action and rude humor.

We’re entering the second decade of having Minions in our society, and through all the terrible Facebook memes, they have survived, even thrived, but with the Despicable Me franchise now six films full, is there enough actual storytelling to justify their return? I’m not so sure.

On a mission for the Anti-Villain League, or AVL, Gru (Steve Carell, Little Miss Sunshine) infiltrates his high school reunion to take out feuding former classmate and sharply-dressed villain Maxine Le Mal (Will Ferrell, Barbie). Maxine swears revenge, causing Gru and his family to go into relocation under disguises to ensure their safety, but Gru soon finds that he cannot hide his scheming for long, and Maxine will soon find him. Can the Minions save him? Only if they can figure out their new superpowers and become the Mega-Minions!

Throughout the entirety of Despicable Me 4, I had the nagging suspicion that the film had been constructed by taking a large handful of Despicable Me/Minions shorts and blending them all together, hoping we, as an audience, wouldn’t notice. That gives the finished product a frenetic feeling, but I never felt like the narrative or the characters were really moving forward. We were merely biding time until Maxine arrives to initiate the endgame. It was a collection of episodes in the lives of the characters, almost like one of this mid-2000s Disney direct-to-video sequels that combined episodes from a TV series to make money from a failed show. A lot of things are going on during Despicable Me 4, and some of it is entertaining, but I kept finding myself wondering if we’ve officially run out of steam with this world.

Most of the voice work is great, with Ferrell as Maxine and Stephen Colbert (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) as Perry Prescott, Gru’s new neighbor, but there are other new additions like Sofia Vergara (Chef) that ultimately go wasted. Perhaps she just doesn’t have enough to do, but that’s the state of Despicable Me 4. There’s a lot of stuff and a lot of characters in the movie but nothing for them to do because they’re sharing the spotlight. The filmmakers even brought back Trey Parker, Benjamin Bratt, Jason Segel, and Sandra Bullock from previous films for a vocal cameo in the finale song. As much as I love returning characters, they just really didn’t have anything to offer this actual movie, which matters when you’re movie is so bloated.

Despicable Me 4 is still perfectly watchable, so don’t worry if you’re a parent who is being dragged to the theater this weekend. It’s just an unfortunate dip in quality that’s continued from Minions: The Rise of Gru, creating a movie that in better parts than its whole.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, and Eric Guillon’s Despicable Me 3, click here.