Minions: The Rise of Gru

Directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, and Jonathan del Val, Minions: The Rise of Gru follows a twelve-year-old Gru (Steve Carell) as he strives to become a fearsome supervillain. Filmmakers Balda, Ableson, and del Val, armed with Matthew Fogel’s screenplay, do an effective job of initially drawing the viewer into the increasingly underwhelming proceedings, as Minions: The Rise of Gru kicks off with a fun, promising opening stretch that generally exploits the novelty of a young Gru to agreeable effect (eg Gru and the minions wreak havoc at a screening of Jaws). And while the remainder of the proceedings boasts a very small handful of engaging attributes, with this particularly true of a typically entertaining and memorable voice performance by Alan Arkin, Minions: The Rise of Gru eventually (and inevitably) progresses into a exhausting, frenetic midsection and second half that slowly-but-surely alienates the viewer – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by a wildly over-the-top (and completely uninvolving) climax. The end result is a disappointing sequel that rarely lives up to the potential of its seemingly foolproof setup, which is a shame, ultimately, given the better-than-expected nature of the picture’s predecessor (2015’s Minions).

** out of ****