Despicable Me 2

Odie Henderson started his review out by saying, “I enjoyed 2010's "Despicable Me" immensely, so I approached "Despicable Me 2" with a wary eye.” “Despicable Me” told a funny, nice, independent story about a man named Gru who steps down as a villain and decides to become an adopted father. The ending did not leave audiences on a cliffhanger that noted there would be a sequel. Henderson admitted, “Satisfied viewers like me sang "So Long, Farewell" to Gru and his crew.” Reps at Universal looked at "Despicable Me's" $251 million dollar domestic box office gross and sang "Never Can Say Goodbye."” Here we have another summer sequel.

“Despicable Me 2,” released in 2013, is as passable as it is superfluous. Henderson admitted, “Therein lies the rub for me. Here I sit on the fence between 2-1/2 and 3 stars, unsure of where I will fall.” The bad news is that it’s disappointing to see the returning protagonist who is not as good as his original creation. He’s fixed by the one thing that made “Despicable Me’s” ending so great. The good news is that there are an onslaught of amazing touches made with care and attention by cast and crew. Henderson stated, “These moments are so good I almost feel despicable for being undecided. So this review is a battle between Evil Film Critic Odie and Emotional Moviegoer Odie. You have a luxury I currently do not: You can look at the star rating above and see who won.”

The start of “Despicable Me 2” is what shows some great intelligence. An entire smart team and their station is attacked by a huge horseshoe magnet right out of the Warner Bros. cartoon subordinate, The Acme Company. Almost everyone and everything is hilariously taken to the sky and relocated, except for a port-a-potty and the scared person inside of it. This kind of villainy is what gets the attention of the AVI, an organization that finds and reports this deadly attack Gru did when he was in “Despicable Me.” The AVI sends out agent Lucy, voiced by Kristen Wiig, to ask Gru to use his skills of antagonist deduction to find out who’s behind the attacks of magnetic character. Lucy thinks she’ll ask nicely by electrocuting Gru with a “lipstick taser” before throwing him into the trunk of her high-tech car/plane/boat.

Before he meets up with Lucy, Gru was living a boring, house-trained life. Now retired, the only despicable thing he is committing on society is tasting jams and jellies. This makes his colleague Dr. Nefario to resign and goes to work for a new villain. Gru’s new project will help his undercover case as a vendor at the local mall. Lucy believes the intelligence AVI wants one of the other store owners at the mall. Henderson noted, “Suspects include a hairdresser, whose appearance conjures up images of "Shampoo" recast with Paul Williams, and an extremely masculine Mexican restaurant owner whom Gru thinks bears strong resemblance to a bad guy named "El Macho." Since El Macho es muerte (his death scene will put hair on your chest), Gru is immediately suspicious.”

Henderson noted, “Al Pacino was supposed to play Eduardo, the guy Gru thinks is El Macho. Al left the movie, but his accent apparently remained. Benjamin Bratt picks up the most over-the-top Hispanic accent since Tony Montana and runs a marathon with it. His line readings are a blast, though some viewers might find Eduardo somewhat politically incorrect. Whether Eduardo is El Macho isn't important; he brings much needed spark to "Despicable Me 2," upstaging Gru at every turn. In fact, until the climax, everyone upstages Gru. Carrell's accented line readings are still a pleasure, but I wanted more of the old Gru's scheming.”

Henderson goes on to say, “"Despicable Me 2" does offer a few flashes of what endeared me to its hero in the first place.” Gru’s suspicions about Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt) is more when the eldest adopted daughter Margo falls in love with Eduardo’s teenage son Antonio (Moises Arias). Gru’s hilarious unsuccessful (and otherwise cruel) attempts to keep Margo from growing up will relate to dads who are raising a daughter. Gru even brings his freeze gun out of retirement to cool Antonio’s growth spurs, however he points it at the wrong parts of this lover.

While Gru stresses about Margo falling in love, she and her sisters Agnes and Edith worry about his, even setting him up on one of those dating sites. When Agnes sees Lucy, she rightfully hooks that Gru has a crush on her. This potential subplot of is made to insert emotion into “Despicable Me 2.” Henderson admitted, “While it works for the most part (Agnes' big, expression-filled eyes are the animators' most glorious creations), nothing in the sequel comes as close to yanking my heartstrings as the moment when Gru, literally caught between the moon and New York City in the original, sees that pink ballet recital ticket floating in space.”

Henderson admitted, “"Despicable Me 2" lags on occasion, but every time I found my attention waning, the filmmakers did something wicked to goose me. Many of these moments involve my second favorite thing about "Despicable Me," Gru's minions. The cheerful little yellow creatures with overalls become integral plot points this time, undergoing a Gremlins-style metamorphosis to the dark side courtesy of our mystery villain. This leads to a nod to Philip Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" that, dare I say, is worth the price of admission. The minions also figure in the second dressed-in-all-white homage to '90s music to appear in a 2013 summer film. I laughed so hard I almost spat out my soda. It was at that moment that I found myself torn about my star rating.”

This is where the viewers enter. Henderson said, “While I remain disappointed that the sequel gives me a subdued Gru and an uneven pace, I keep remembering things about "Despicable Me 2" that make me smile.” For every shoulder-shrug moment, there’s almost 2 well-done joke or lines. The voice talent is still brilliant, with Wiig, Bratt, Steve Coogan and the returning Russell Brand as stand-outs. Henderson noted, “The 3-D, as far as I can tell, is quite good, especially during the closing credits. (Full disclosure: like some of Gru's minions, I've only got one working eye, which turns 3-D into 2.25-D.) Some of the minor plot points pay off big time. I'm as enamored of the Pharrell Williams songs in this one as I was in the first film (and they're well used).” Directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, and screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul insert a few sweet moments of honest emotional weight from the relationship between Gru and his kids.

Henderson ended his review by saying, “With all that in mind, I have decided to award three stars to "Despicable Me 2." Besides, the Evil Film Critic has to win sometimes.”

With all of this said, I actually thought this movie was funnier than the first one. If you liked the first one and were thoroughly entertained by it, then this one is for you. We didn’t see this in theaters, although I was telling everyone let’s go see this one, along with “Monsters University.” However, when I rented this from the library, I found myself laughing more at this then the first one. I say to check this one out.

Check in next week for the spin-off of the series in “Despicable Me Month.”