DESPICABLE ME 4 – Review by Valerie Kafrin
Giving the villain in Despicable Me 4 a cockroach fixation is an apt metaphor for the plot, which scatters all over the place like those buggers when the lights click on.
I have a soft spot for reformed villain Gru and his banana-loving Minions, having discovered them when my teen son was small. But this latest entry in Illumination Entertainment’s long-running franchise is a mixed bag, for sure. It has some loopy Minion shenanigans, and some funny bits with Gru (again voiced by Steve Carell) and his family. But overall, it’s a series of sketches that doesn’t hang together as well as my favorites, 2013’s Despicable Me 2 and 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Not exactly picking up where 2017’s Despicable Me 3 left off—this sequel seems to ignore much of that film altogether—Despicable Me 4 opens with Gru undercover for the Anti-Villain League (AVL) at essentially a high school reunion. (And yes, having not seen Minions in natty suits before, I laughed at the one-eyed spy guy in shades.)
Gru and a few of his pint-sized crew are here to nab Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), a nemesis even back in their school days. Maxime at first wears a puffy gold and green coat, which conceals he’s part man, part roach because he admires the bugs’ durability. (I was thankful for scenes where he had his coat on.)
Gru and the AVL still pack Maxime off to prison, where in no amount of time, he busts free and swears revenge, sending Gru and his family to an AVL safe house. Wearing a pink polo and claiming to sell solar panels, Gru is awkward enough to draw the attention of Poppy (Joey King, We Were the Lucky Ones), his smarmy neighbor’s daughter. With a mouthful of braces and scorn, Poppy figures out Gru’s true identity and blackmails him into helping with a heist of her own.
While Maxime and his human girlfriend, Valentina (Sofia Vergara), fly around in a giant cockroach, searching for Gru and the family, the AVL transforms five Minions into Mega Minions with superpowers, ostensibly to find and defeat Maxime first. The Mega Minions resemble The Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Cyclops, Mr. Incredible, and Superman with a pointy head and none of the smarts. Could no one look up at the sky and spot the freaking enormous flying cockroach?
As a villain, Maxime has some vague motives involving a roach-transforming ray and an army of roach assistants, all wearing mini green helmets. (My teen wondered where he found helmets that small and how his buggy appearance wasn’t grounds for a split.)
All those bugs aside, the film has other issues, namely not knowing what to do with Gru’s daughters, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan), or his wife, Lucy (Kristen Wiig). The script by Ken Daurio (a franchise veteran since the 2010 original) and Mike White (Migration) gets some amusing mileage out of situations with the couple’s new baby, Gru Jr., who regards Lucy with wide-eyed adoration and scowls at Gru every chance he gets.
Minions acting as the infant’s diaper-changing pit crew or ratcheting his car seat into place are cute quick visual gags. Other standout moments include Lucy and the girls dodging someone at the supermarket, improvising obstacles, and Gru’s heist with Poppy, where he’s forced to convert baby supplies into spy gear.
Directors Chris Renaud (a longtime Minion and Illumination director) and Patrick Delage (animation director on Sing 2) have a handle on the crowd-pleasing (and merchandise-generating) moments, but it feels like assorted moments strung together instead of a coherent and satisfying story. It’s not despicable, but I wish it had been better.
