Minions (Cinema Screening)

(spoiler free)

I’m a big fan of both Despicable Me movies, a big part of why I enjoy those movies so much is because of the minions. However, despite this I wasn’t too excited when I heard that they were getting their own movie – an origin story. I feared that the minions wouldn’t work as main characters and they would struggle to carry the film completely on their tiny yellow shoulders.

Much of what I expected was the case and as a result Minions was a disappointment. The minions themselves were good and hadn’t lost their immaturity or slapstick value. However they work so much better as supporting characters after the opening sequence most things that they do fail to be overly funny simply because this movie is just one big minion overdose. The film has a few funny moments where I did chuckle however for the most part it only ever stretches as far as to amusing. I watched this movie in a screen full of children and surprisingly so I didn’t hear to many laughs from them either. Minions certainly doesn’t have the appeal for both adults and children that say Inside Out does. The over the top stereotyping of English people was hit and miss too.

One element which I really did enjoy though was the villainy, much like the Despicable Me movies there is a focus on the world of the super villain, their evil plans, they gadgets and of course their henchmen. Minions takes us to Villain Con which was a great invention and was probably the most creative element to the movie. The villain taking centre stage this time wasn’t Gru but instead was Scarlett Overkill, played by Sandra Bullock. Much like Villain Con, I liked her design and creativity – Sandra Bullock wouldn’t have been an obvious choice to voice this character in my opinion but she did a good job. There are a few more characters that make appearances throughout the movie, some are better than others. At ninety minutes Minions does feel long in parts but a good ending makes up for the excessive moments of minion babble.

Minions is in no way a bad movie, the villain element is as strong as ever and there is plenty of fun to be had with this. The biggest issue is simply having the minions in the lead roles, they work so much better as secondary characters. So ironically it has to be said that the minions are the stars of the Despicable Me movies but in Minions they aren’t really at their best. Nonetheless, Minions is harmless fun that should keep the kids amused for an hour and a half, there are a few laughs but in the end nothing that memorable.

Rating – 6/10