Despicable Me 3 Movie Review

Despicable Me 3 is fun in that it keeps with the theme and the intent of the original… Good vs. Bad and that sort of thing but it lost one key element that is so very important to the big picture; The Minions!  DM3 centers mostly around Gru and the girls.  One could argue they all do but not to this degree.  Minions have a finger on the pulse of why adults AND the children get tickets to see these films and to a large extent, they were absent from the third installment.  They did get their own movie so maybe they were out spending lavishly and weren’t quite available, but I asked their publicist and this wasn’t the case.  They weren’t included much, outside of Mel, for unknown reasons at this point.  Illumination and Universal Pictures would have done better to have had more Minions in the film.  They’re present, just not enough and at the end of the day, that’s the big takeaway here. 

However, do not fear!  DM3 is still very good.  Gru and his new wife Lucy are fired when they are unable to stop, Balthazar Bratt, a former 80’s child star who hit puberty and was never heard from again, from stealing a very big pink diamond.  Bratt is angry he has been thrown away by Hollywood and vows revenge.  He has a good catchphrase, is a good villain and is often followed by some ‘neato’ 80’s tunes that he likes to dance fight to.  The Minions would most likely take his side in a fight.  Hmm… maybe they do?  You’ll have to see.

The movie is full of cute and, of course, villainy.  The girls, Agnes, Edith and Margo are very much a part of the story with Agnes and Margo having more focus than Edith.  She pretty much ends up being more of the Jan Brady of the Trio.  Adorable Agnes’ story centers on her finding a real unicorn and Margo has her first taste of boy troubles.  The real meat of the yarn is Gru finding out he has a twin.  There was a custody battle with his parents and his mother, who had lied to him about his father’s death, got the rotten end of the deal.  Harsh.  Poor Gru. 

This angle smells of desperation a bit but it works and, to be honest, I’m looking forward to part four.  I’m thinking they’ll have a few things ironed out, get all the Minions back on and signing new contracts and settle into what works best with films like this… the extraordinary.  Give the people what they want!  They don’t necessarily want NICE all the time.  It’s cute when a Minion is sweet but let’s see the little stinkers for who they really are used more.