Random Review/Rant?: Despicable Me 2 *spoilers*
So apparently the crew behind Despicable Me made the atrocities we know as Hop and The Lorax. And they've decided to make a sequel to their original hit. What is with these companies that try to be as good as Pixar was? Dreamworks, Disney, and this company among countless others seem to vie for dominating the animation industry. Let's not waste any time and plunge right into this new movie that they made.
But first, let me address the stupid love thing that they decided to add that was every bit as cliched and tasteless as the one in The Lorax. I was somewhat okay with how they handled the one between Groo and Lucy but then the eldest daughter had to go and fall in love with El Macho's son. I see a growing trend in our media today about how we focus primarily on appearances when judging love. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, because it is true despite best intentions. But when you have this cliched cliche that just feels so cliched in young love, I just tear out my hair when watching any scene involving this. Oh, that boy is sooooo swoony, I just love him from first sight. This may very well be just another stab at comedy by poking fun at this bad cliche but bad cliches of bad cliches are still bad cliches. Anyways, the whole issue with love is really weird since Groo's love was more sincere despite being cliched while the daughter's passing love was even more cliched. Nothing about love in this movie was funny except for the dance party which was already cringe-worthy enough.
Now onto the real thing. One thing I noticed was that they used minions as a gag a lot more. I think they realized that minions were a huge thing in the first movie so of they decided to cram a multitude of minion visual gags in there. While the minions were endearing in the first movie, their blatant use as filler just left me hollow since many of their gags were forced and missed their target. And the primary focus was on minions as well with the whole El Macho storyline that turned them into monsters. I find it funny that Groo didn't notice any of the minions being missing due to his busy schedule. While the minions are still good fun, they just aren't funny.
In fact, that's a complaint I have with this movie. It isn't very funny. The first movie attempted toward the "cute" side of things with the whole subplot of the daughters but ended up more funny than cute while this movie was more cute than funny despite intentions of being funny. The jokes don't work half the time and feel awkward like the moment Lucy is staring at El Macho's glorious fat or when a minion is entranced by Lucy. There were a lot of funny moments but the jokes that fell flat really fell flat.
The daughters aren't used that much either. The youngest one was the really cute one who had touching moments, the middle one had good visual gags that worked better than the minions, and the eldest one was being stupid. It's a shame that the daughters are relegated to the sidelines to be used at certain points for entertainment but I'm not complaining too much. The eldest daughter already left a bad taste in my mouth.
Let's move on to the plot. Essentially, this place of anti-villain is targeting this mall since they believe there is a villain lurking there and they send Groo and Lucy to investigate. They capture this one guy despite Groo's insistence that Eduardo is the bad guy and it turns out Eduardo is the El Macho that was the true baddy. Dr. Nefario teams up with El Macho but Dr. Nefario defects back for some reason and El Macho's evil medicine is reversed by a deus ex machina antidote. At first, the plot seemed to be amusing but then it turned cliched with Groo's initial suspicion proved right and everything working out in the end. My main complaint is Dr. Nefario. Dr. Nefario could very well be the antagonist of both movies. Why did he go to El Macho's side? To be more evil? Well why did he mutate the minions that he loved? Why did he go back to Groo? Why did Groo trust him after knowing that Dr. Nefario mutated the minions? Why is Dr. Nefario relegated to the sidelines too? I kept expecting him to turn back to El Macho's side with his returning back to Groo's side being a facade but he just helped Groo at the last minute and turned back to the bland sidekick. What happened in the end?
Overall, this movie was a huge step back from the original. It doesn't have the same charm that the first one did and it was as cliched as The Lorax which was to be expected. I can't say I'm disappointed since I had low expectations for this movie but I kinda wish that this movie could've turned out better than this. It's made for kids which seems to mean that it doesn't appeal to adults as much despite obvious jokes intended for that age group. The mundane plot and the cliches really hold back this film from becoming as good as its predecessor.
Final Rating: 5/10
But first, let me address the stupid love thing that they decided to add that was every bit as cliched and tasteless as the one in The Lorax. I was somewhat okay with how they handled the one between Groo and Lucy but then the eldest daughter had to go and fall in love with El Macho's son. I see a growing trend in our media today about how we focus primarily on appearances when judging love. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, because it is true despite best intentions. But when you have this cliched cliche that just feels so cliched in young love, I just tear out my hair when watching any scene involving this. Oh, that boy is sooooo swoony, I just love him from first sight. This may very well be just another stab at comedy by poking fun at this bad cliche but bad cliches of bad cliches are still bad cliches. Anyways, the whole issue with love is really weird since Groo's love was more sincere despite being cliched while the daughter's passing love was even more cliched. Nothing about love in this movie was funny except for the dance party which was already cringe-worthy enough.
Now onto the real thing. One thing I noticed was that they used minions as a gag a lot more. I think they realized that minions were a huge thing in the first movie so of they decided to cram a multitude of minion visual gags in there. While the minions were endearing in the first movie, their blatant use as filler just left me hollow since many of their gags were forced and missed their target. And the primary focus was on minions as well with the whole El Macho storyline that turned them into monsters. I find it funny that Groo didn't notice any of the minions being missing due to his busy schedule. While the minions are still good fun, they just aren't funny.
In fact, that's a complaint I have with this movie. It isn't very funny. The first movie attempted toward the "cute" side of things with the whole subplot of the daughters but ended up more funny than cute while this movie was more cute than funny despite intentions of being funny. The jokes don't work half the time and feel awkward like the moment Lucy is staring at El Macho's glorious fat or when a minion is entranced by Lucy. There were a lot of funny moments but the jokes that fell flat really fell flat.
The daughters aren't used that much either. The youngest one was the really cute one who had touching moments, the middle one had good visual gags that worked better than the minions, and the eldest one was being stupid. It's a shame that the daughters are relegated to the sidelines to be used at certain points for entertainment but I'm not complaining too much. The eldest daughter already left a bad taste in my mouth.
Let's move on to the plot. Essentially, this place of anti-villain is targeting this mall since they believe there is a villain lurking there and they send Groo and Lucy to investigate. They capture this one guy despite Groo's insistence that Eduardo is the bad guy and it turns out Eduardo is the El Macho that was the true baddy. Dr. Nefario teams up with El Macho but Dr. Nefario defects back for some reason and El Macho's evil medicine is reversed by a deus ex machina antidote. At first, the plot seemed to be amusing but then it turned cliched with Groo's initial suspicion proved right and everything working out in the end. My main complaint is Dr. Nefario. Dr. Nefario could very well be the antagonist of both movies. Why did he go to El Macho's side? To be more evil? Well why did he mutate the minions that he loved? Why did he go back to Groo? Why did Groo trust him after knowing that Dr. Nefario mutated the minions? Why is Dr. Nefario relegated to the sidelines too? I kept expecting him to turn back to El Macho's side with his returning back to Groo's side being a facade but he just helped Groo at the last minute and turned back to the bland sidekick. What happened in the end?
Overall, this movie was a huge step back from the original. It doesn't have the same charm that the first one did and it was as cliched as The Lorax which was to be expected. I can't say I'm disappointed since I had low expectations for this movie but I kinda wish that this movie could've turned out better than this. It's made for kids which seems to mean that it doesn't appeal to adults as much despite obvious jokes intended for that age group. The mundane plot and the cliches really hold back this film from becoming as good as its predecessor.
Final Rating: 5/10
Comments
Post a Comment