Despicable Me 4 Review by Amaar Hyder

 Despicable Me 4 Review

Warning: Spoilers for Despicable Me 4 and Minions: The Rise of Gru

Despicable Me 4 was a disappointing film. It wasn’t bad, but a dip from the previous entries in the franchise. While Despicable Me 3 was also just ok, Minions: The Rise of Gru was great. And I’m also the type that likes nearly everything I watch.

I simply just didn’t find the movie very enjoyable. I kept on thinking “Am I wondering too much if I’m enjoying this. Is something wrong with me?” But after my parents also said it wasn’t very entertaining, I knew I was fine. It was watchable and had a few good scenes, but otherwise it was just fine. 

The plot itself isn’t that great. Maxime Le Mel is easily the worst villain in the franchise and for most of the movie is just looking for Gru. The heroes have one fight in the beginning and another in the end. His cockroach mutant thing was cool, but there was not too much too it and he just uses it to escape prison and the traps in the opening scene and turn Gru Jr against his father. And his intention just being to kidnap Gru Jr to get revenge is a major downgrade from the previous villains.  Him having cockroaches as his minions was cute though. Valentina, his girlfriend sidekick, was all right. So, not much to him.

I did find the part where Gru Jr. is being kidnapped and Gru is chasing after the jet and the former is crying a bit emotional (not that I was even starting to cry), because after all his dislike towards him, he wanted to go back to him. I know a baby would rather be with somebody he knows rather than a stranger, but still. 

The Mega Minions were however, great and the out of retirement montage was one of the highlights of the movie. Especially, Mega Minion Mel using his laser eye to make swiss cheese, which in my humble opinion is one of the best Minion moments in the franchise. I was also glad that Otto had a cameo in this. You can’t fix the past but you can add him to future sequels! I do wish that the mini chicken-Minion returned though, but I guess that would look weird that he’s suddenly back, so I can’t really blame the movie on that.

I also did want Agnes’s unicorn to return. I know it was sold in three, but I was hoping it’d come back. Also, I’m pretty sure I read it was coming back. I shouldn’t be too surprised it didn’t and am not, and it’s not as if I loved the unicorn itself. It’s that Agnes loved unicorns and I simply thought it was sad she got rid of it, and that it’s iconic to the franchise. But, lke the mini chicken-Minion, blaming the movie wouldn’t be fair.

During the heist scene, another highlight, I was thinking “Is this movie gonna be better now. Is it one of those films that improve in the second half?” Nope. 

Poppy is a fun new character and her method to impress villains is similar to young Gru’s in The Rise of Gru and it actually works, unlike with Gru. However, her parents don’t think anything about her going to villain school? But, you can’t explain every little plot hole so I’ll forgive the filmakers for that.

And was Dr. Nefario really in Gru’s original house’s lab the whole time? He didn’t need to relocate like Gru and his family or the Minions? Sure, maybe he went elsewhere, but why? And Ramsbottom didn’t even say anything about him.

Halfway through the hair salon scene, when Lucy puts the cream on the hair, I knew that the hair was gonna fall off. While I don’t consider predictability bad, it doesn’t make for a great scene or movie ether.  And she got zero training? The AVL doesn’t realize that completely making up her resume will probably cause some serious law suits and arrest for fraud?

A lot of people also criticized the fact that numerous sublots are just left alone after sometime, such as Agnes’s name “lying”, Margo being lonely and the school bullies, and the karate teacher not being brought up again. I personally think it’s ok, because we can assume the karate teacher made them do “a lot of pushups” and as for the first two, they moved back into their old house soon, so they could just forget about it. But, I see what they mean, as it seems like for the first two subplots that there are gonna be character arcs when… there aren’t. 

And lastly, the finale. I was told that there are a lot of familiar faces, but it isn’t until this scene where we actually see them. I thought they’d have an actual role. But anywho, that’s not the movie’s fault and is actually pretty fun. I would not have expected to see Mr. Perkins there!

Overall, Despicable Me 4 is an ok movie with a 6.5/10 rating. If you really enjoyed it that’s fine (although I’d find loving it questionable). Hopefully, Minions 3 (2027) will redeem the franchise. As a side note, on the Megaverse timeline for 100 years worth of Mega Minions movies, the first few plots like the one featured for this movie are just whatever. However, later down the line a lot of them look like they’ll be actually worth making, or at least as TV specials.