Review of Despicable Me 3 Full Movie HD Yify version. The problem with continuing a franchise whether it be live action or animation is that the content dries up until all you are left with is a series of sequences joined together with little in the way of good narrative, to get people to the seats based on their knowledge of the previous installments. This is the problem with Despicable Me 3- apart from the need to make money, there is no reason for this film to exist. Not all is bad though and whilst adults might want to skip this film, kids will probably enjoy it as much as the earlier films. (A fine family outing movie but nothing more than that)
Despicable Me 3 is my personal 2nd favorite in the series. There are parts of what made the first so amazing and each part shot into one of the sequels and I think Despicable Me 3 did its part better. The movie has only two major weaknesses that are easy to get past is that there are too many plots and that it relies on juvenile humor and toilet humor more than the last two. However, these are just small flaws and are easy to look past once you see the plots mesh together in a really satisfying way. This movie had some pretty good highlights, like when Gru said his mother told him that his father died of disappointment when he was born as well. Overall, Despicable Me 3 is an extremely enjoyable ride I'd recommend to anyone who can get past its flaws.
Though entirely too worried that a few similar elements were going to throw us back into a poorly veiled rehash of the previous two entries: namely the dissatisfaction of the minions, another brilliant but stereotyped enemy, a once again career-broken cast, etc. I was surprised to find that it wasn't the dead setup for the previously mentioned, but an opportunity to let the characters turn in a new direction. While it may turn off some as a cheap trick, or because they think their favorite character hasn't gotten enough screen time (or barely any at all), I think it's a good direction. So long as the franchise knows how and where to end, anyway. And I think three just might be the magic number.
I've made my feelings on Illumination Entertainment is known throughout the years that I've had the (dis)pleasure of reviewing their films throughout the years. I even went so far as to state, in my review of Sing, that I felt they were the worst major animation studio since, in my opinion, they hadn't produced ONE good movie yet. Of course, Sing changed all that and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. But I'm not about to sit here and say that it was a masterpiece of CG films. It was just a fun little diversion, but it offered nothing of substance. In fact, you could say their entire filmography has been all style and no substance. Having said all that, I still feel that Illumination is still the worst major animation studio in North America.
Their first major franchise, Despicable Me, gave way to the asinine and insufferable merchandising bonanza that are the Minions. Perhaps you could call it a stroke of marketing genius that they managed to make these little annoying assholes into THE biggest mascot any film company has had in quite a while, but I think they just lucked into it honestly. While I get that their intentions, for the original DM, were probably always to merchandise the Minions, I don't imagine that they thought it would take off the way it did. Minions are still popular to this day and I just don't understand it. The Minions are so popular that if you were to ask a casual fan to name any other character from the Despicable Me franchise that isn't Gru, 99% would fail.
I'd fail at that challenge, but I have NEVER been a fan of the franchise anyway. The point is that the Minions are bigger than any of the characters in the movie and this franchise continues to exist, to this day, because it's relatively cheap to produce compared to Pixar's output (no Illumination Entertainment film has cost more than $80 million to produce) and they make a ton of money. But, and more importantly than that, they serve to justify EVEN MORE MINIONS MERCHANDISE. The Despicable Me franchise exists to peddle more of this bullshit, that's the only reason they keep being made. They're gonna squeeze that cash cow until it cannot give any more. The cynical movie made for cynical purposes. Perhaps my issues with the franchise start with the original movie, where some people actually said it had storytelling and I found that a laughable concept upon actually having seen the movie. The only interesting character, to me, was Gru's mother in how she really was the only villainous character in the entire film and, therefore, the only entertaining one.
Of course, what do you do with the most interesting character from the first movie when you head into a sequel? You get rid of her entirely. What do you do with that character in the SECOND sequel? You only have her in ONE measly scene. Do these people even know what they're doing? No, I don't think they do. Let's move on to the actual movie, shall we? I don't know, having said all that I have said and all of my complaints about the franchise and Illumination in general, I found this to be the most "entertaining" of all the Despicable Me movies. I realize that that might not be saying much since I'm giving this the same score as the two movies that preceded it. What I can say is that, thankfully, this is better than that insufferable Minions spin-off movie. But, and again, this is an Illumination legacy issue, their movies have always been more about the style than any real actual substance.
There's no depth to any of their movies and I'll slap you silly if anyone dares say otherwise. I really don't remember any of the previous movies, probably for good reason, this one feels as inconsistent as ever. The main problem is, of course, the scripting. This is like a series of subplots all cobbled together to barely make a 'narrative'. Gru meets his brother, Dru and they spend a lot of the time together bonding and doing their own shit. The Minions quit after Gru gets fired from the Anti-Villain League and he refuses to return to a life of villainy. They go off on their journey that sees them perform at one of those singing competitions, they get thrown in jail and then they escape from it at a later point in the film when they realize they love Gru. Lucy struggles to connect with the girls. Agnes, the smallest and most annoying of the girls, tries to find a unicorn.
And then there's Balthazar Bratt. While I liked the addition of Dru, I felt that Balthazar Bratt was a cool little addition to the franchise that they really didn't do much with. Balthazar, a former 80s child star, has been stuck in a state of arrested development, still dressing and fashioning his life as if it was the 80s when his show got canceled as a result of his puberty. Sometimes, when movies introduce 80s elements, it feels like an excuse to license some cool 80s music or to be nostalgic. But Bratt still living in the past is actually essential to the character and I find that it works. Though, to be fair, it still feels like an excuse to license 80s music and have an 80s aesthetic in the movie with the colorful costumes, the neon, the fashion, etc, etc. It's just more justified given Bratt's past. The film really doesn't have any clever or inspiring writing and the fact that they rely so much on slapstick is disappointing.
Not that you can't use it, but you need to mix and match things, it can't always be the same thing over and over and over again. And that's just what this movie feels like. It's not that it's all slapstick, but the humor is definitely very repetitive. And, as the RT consensus says, it is a very scattershot movie as it relates to its humor. And I thought that this was still the most entertaining of all the films in the franchise. I wonder what that says about previous installments. The animation is colorful enough for the children, but I've never felt that Illumination has been a studio that you can count on to deliver the goods as it relates to truly high-quality and detailed worlds that would rival the best in the business. And I guess they realize that they'll never be as good as Pixar is in terms of creating beautiful worlds and they work to avoid the comparisons. They stick to what they know and rarely ever stray from their comfort zone. Having said that, though, their style of animation, as much as their approach to their stories, has always been very shallow.
I wish I could rant on the same level that I used to in the past with regards to this franchise, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. Of course, I'm still not a fan and large parts of this are just really lazy filmmaking, but I never felt there was anything inherently wrong with this movie as there was with the first two or even the Minions' spin-off. Yes, they still get the same score, but they annoyed me more than this one did. I don't know whether that's just the fact that I turned 30 two months ago and I don't have the same vitriol inside me anymore? That's a lie, if a movie pisses me off, I can still release the Kraken, as it were. I just think that, at this point, I'm finally over the whole Despicable Me franchise. I'll watch them if I find them easily available to me, but I'm sort of over the entire thing. The Minions are what they are and they will continue to be the main focus of this franchise's promotion, no matter what I say. They're doing what they need to do for their business, I'm just some nerd on the internet. I don't like it, but it is what it is. The franchise is still forgettable and this movie, while decent enough, doesn't change the trend. It's safe, sanitized.
It's something your kids, if you have any, will watch, enjoy and then forget about it a few hours later. It's mindless entertainment. There's no risk. Even without taking those risks, Illumination has still reaped the rewards, sadly. It has taught them that it's ok to not put in much of an effort with their narratives, as long as they have cute, colorful and marketable characters. The rest will sort itself out in time. And I don't wanna say that Illumination has untalented artists, because that would not be the case, I'm sure there's a lot of really talented people working really hard to put a movie like this together, I just feel that the focus from the higher-ups, whom the artists take orders from, is on something else entirely as opposed to making sure that you have a high-quality movie on your hands. If they wanted to produce high-quality movies, I'm sure they could. But there's a reason why so many of their films fall flat on their faces creatively and that's because they know that, regardless of whether or not this movie was any good, it's still gonna make a shit-ton of money.
That assessment would be correct, but it's a cynical way to look at this business. Because it's one that values the money over the creativity. And, again, any business needs to make money, but there's no reason, if you're an animated studio, that you can't mix the two. Pixar has achieved this for over TWENTY years and DreamWorks, at times, has also accomplished this. Why can't Illumination??? Maybe they just don't want to, who knows??? I'm not gonna speculate, even though I pretty much already did. Anyway. This is another Despicable Me movie, take it or leave it, it's the same as you've seen before with some new, slightly entertaining additions. Decent, but I won't remember anything about this in a week, maybe less.
Though entirely too worried that a few similar elements were going to throw us back into a poorly veiled rehash of the previous two entries: namely the dissatisfaction of the minions, another brilliant but stereotyped enemy, a once again career-broken cast, etc. I was surprised to find that it wasn't the dead setup for the previously mentioned, but an opportunity to let the characters turn in a new direction. While it may turn off some as a cheap trick, or because they think their favorite character hasn't gotten enough screen time (or barely any at all), I think it's a good direction. So long as the franchise knows how and where to end, anyway. And I think three just might be the magic number.
Their first major franchise, Despicable Me, gave way to the asinine and insufferable merchandising bonanza that are the Minions. Perhaps you could call it a stroke of marketing genius that they managed to make these little annoying assholes into THE biggest mascot any film company has had in quite a while, but I think they just lucked into it honestly. While I get that their intentions, for the original DM, were probably always to merchandise the Minions, I don't imagine that they thought it would take off the way it did. Minions are still popular to this day and I just don't understand it. The Minions are so popular that if you were to ask a casual fan to name any other character from the Despicable Me franchise that isn't Gru, 99% would fail.
There's no depth to any of their movies and I'll slap you silly if anyone dares say otherwise. I really don't remember any of the previous movies, probably for good reason, this one feels as inconsistent as ever. The main problem is, of course, the scripting. This is like a series of subplots all cobbled together to barely make a 'narrative'. Gru meets his brother, Dru and they spend a lot of the time together bonding and doing their own shit. The Minions quit after Gru gets fired from the Anti-Villain League and he refuses to return to a life of villainy. They go off on their journey that sees them perform at one of those singing competitions, they get thrown in jail and then they escape from it at a later point in the film when they realize they love Gru. Lucy struggles to connect with the girls. Agnes, the smallest and most annoying of the girls, tries to find a unicorn.
And then there's Balthazar Bratt. While I liked the addition of Dru, I felt that Balthazar Bratt was a cool little addition to the franchise that they really didn't do much with. Balthazar, a former 80s child star, has been stuck in a state of arrested development, still dressing and fashioning his life as if it was the 80s when his show got canceled as a result of his puberty. Sometimes, when movies introduce 80s elements, it feels like an excuse to license some cool 80s music or to be nostalgic. But Bratt still living in the past is actually essential to the character and I find that it works. Though, to be fair, it still feels like an excuse to license 80s music and have an 80s aesthetic in the movie with the colorful costumes, the neon, the fashion, etc, etc. It's just more justified given Bratt's past. The film really doesn't have any clever or inspiring writing and the fact that they rely so much on slapstick is disappointing.
I wish I could rant on the same level that I used to in the past with regards to this franchise, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. Of course, I'm still not a fan and large parts of this are just really lazy filmmaking, but I never felt there was anything inherently wrong with this movie as there was with the first two or even the Minions' spin-off. Yes, they still get the same score, but they annoyed me more than this one did. I don't know whether that's just the fact that I turned 30 two months ago and I don't have the same vitriol inside me anymore? That's a lie, if a movie pisses me off, I can still release the Kraken, as it were. I just think that, at this point, I'm finally over the whole Despicable Me franchise. I'll watch them if I find them easily available to me, but I'm sort of over the entire thing. The Minions are what they are and they will continue to be the main focus of this franchise's promotion, no matter what I say. They're doing what they need to do for their business, I'm just some nerd on the internet. I don't like it, but it is what it is. The franchise is still forgettable and this movie, while decent enough, doesn't change the trend. It's safe, sanitized.
It's something your kids, if you have any, will watch, enjoy and then forget about it a few hours later. It's mindless entertainment. There's no risk. Even without taking those risks, Illumination has still reaped the rewards, sadly. It has taught them that it's ok to not put in much of an effort with their narratives, as long as they have cute, colorful and marketable characters. The rest will sort itself out in time. And I don't wanna say that Illumination has untalented artists, because that would not be the case, I'm sure there's a lot of really talented people working really hard to put a movie like this together, I just feel that the focus from the higher-ups, whom the artists take orders from, is on something else entirely as opposed to making sure that you have a high-quality movie on your hands. If they wanted to produce high-quality movies, I'm sure they could. But there's a reason why so many of their films fall flat on their faces creatively and that's because they know that, regardless of whether or not this movie was any good, it's still gonna make a shit-ton of money.
That assessment would be correct, but it's a cynical way to look at this business. Because it's one that values the money over the creativity. And, again, any business needs to make money, but there's no reason, if you're an animated studio, that you can't mix the two. Pixar has achieved this for over TWENTY years and DreamWorks, at times, has also accomplished this. Why can't Illumination??? Maybe they just don't want to, who knows??? I'm not gonna speculate, even though I pretty much already did. Anyway. This is another Despicable Me movie, take it or leave it, it's the same as you've seen before with some new, slightly entertaining additions. Decent, but I won't remember anything about this in a week, maybe less.
No comments:
Post a Comment