The Watch-Men: Minions don’t make it as leads of movie
Synopsis
In “Minions,” Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob travel to Orlando in search of a new super villain to serve. After arriving at the Villain-Con in Orlando they meet up with Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock) in hopes of working for her and to provide a home for all the Minions. When Scarlet sends Kevin, Stuart and Bob on a mission to steal the queen of England’s crown, the Minions get caught up in her master plan to rule the world and things quickly spiral out of control.
I enjoyed “Despicable Me” and its sequel, so I had some hope for this prequel going into the theater. Even though the Minions are cute, they just don’t bring enough to the table to support a full feature-length film and they should just remain as supporting roles in the future. The opening and finale of this film is enjoyable but the movie suffered from a lack of plot, which didn’t help the pacing, causing the majority of the movie to just plod along. It also had the same slapstick humor throughout and it became tiresome – how many times can they get away with the same banana jokes? On the other hand I took my 3-year-old to the theater with me and he loved the film. All the children seated around us were loving every minute.
I feel like I have been spoiled by the quality of animated films that have been released recently from Pixar, Dreamworks and even the first two “Despicable Me” movies, which target their films a bit more towards the adults. The obvious target audience for this film is the kids.
What Worked
I did enjoy the origin story of the Minions and thought it was cute how they tied them into our history. I thought Michael Keaton and his villainous family was a treat to watch as they robbed a bank and I really wish there would have been more of them in the film because they were by far the most interesting characters. I won’t spoil the end but I thought it was one of the best scenes in this film.
What Didn’t Work
The Minions can’t hold up a stand-alone film. They were perfect as supporting characters in “Despicable Me” and their occasional foreign language was cute. But to drag out their language and slapstick humor for an hour and a half became pretty annoying to me. Unfortunately, Bullock wasn’t stellar either. I really expected her character to carry this movie out of its lull but she never seems able to come close to the quality of Gru from the first films. While she is a great actress, voice acting is definitely not her forte.
I will end up buying this film for my children when it comes out for they really loved it. The Minions could do well in a short-format setting like a half hour TV show but I won’t go see another Minions-centric movie. If parents want to kill time, beat the heat and win parent of the year award, then this movie is perfect to see on the big screen. I give this movie a despicable 5.5 out of 10 rating.
Nate Gomes and Dylan McMullen are friends and co-workers who have worked as local television videographers, producers and editors for more than seven years. If you have any questions or comments about their movie reviews, you can contact them through email at watchmenmoviereviews@gmail.com.
The Minions
- Movie Rating: 5.5/10
- Cast: Sandra Bullock as Scarlet Overkill, Jon Hamm as Herb Overkill, Michael Keaton as Walter Nelson, Allison Janney as Madge Nelson, Steve Coogan as Professor Flux, Jennifer Saunders as The Queen, Geoffrey Rush as The Narrator, Pierre Coffin as The Minions
This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 11:20 AM with the headline "The Watch-Men: Minions don’t make it as leads of movie."