Despicable Me 3 Review

My opinion right after watching the film

My opinion right after the film is that it is boring as heck. I have made it clear in the past that I am not much of a fan of Illumination (especially the Despicable Me films), and this film just showed me why. Weird pacing, lack of depth, painful humour, and a lack of anything unique. It is overall inoffensive, and there is some mild entertainment in it, but it’s exactly what I expected; nothing special.

Production

The only thing known about the production of the film is that they announced it to the public in 2013; when the second film was released.

Story

The film starts with a flashback of Bratt (Trey Parker) being a child actor on a popular show, but became evil after the show got cancelled due to puberty. Fast forward to present day with Gru (Steve Carrell) and his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) trying to stop him from stealing a diamond, which they do, but fail to capture him to their Anti-Villain company. Their new director Valerie (Jenny Slate) fires them for continuing to fail to capture them, and I am already annoyed at the tired humour in the film. Gru is sad about not having a job anymore, and Lucy is still dealing with being a stepmother, and some random person tells him that he has a twin brother.

The entire way this set up is revealed is beyond contrived for me to even get into. Why is a random person telling him this now? Gru decides to go to his mother (Julie Andrews)’s house to ask her about this, and she is instantly set off that he knows. Apparently his parents agreed to take a twin when they divorced, and to never speak about or see one another again. Honestly, they are bad parents for this, as they not only kept them from their brother, but their other parent just because of their petty conflict. Of course they skip over the psychological aspect of this, but it’s very grimy once you think of it.

Gru ends up meeting his brother Dru (Steve Carrell), who is pretty much a more hyper and peppy version of himself. As the two get to know one another, Dru reveals that villainy is in their blood, since their father was a super-villain just like them. Apparently Dru and his father were proud of how good of a villain Gru was, and Dru wants to be just like his brother, but is disappointed with Gru refusing to be a villain again. While this is all happening, Lucy is struggling with being a mother to the three girls, and whether to be strict or not. I like this subplot, but an issue that Illumination always has with subplots is that they never blend it well together to make it come off as organic.

Dru convinces Gru to go on a final heist, which includes stealing the diamond from Bratt, so him and Lucy can get their jobs back. Gru is horrible at being skilled at all of this, as he almost ruins the plan unintentionally at every possible opportunity. Of course Bratt sees them, and a long chase ensues, but the brothers manage to successfully steal the diamond. As Dru returns the diamond to his workplace to get his job back, Gru tries to stop him, and they get into an argument where I am supposed to care, but I don’t whatsoever, since this franchise always manages to devoid every emotion from me outside of boredom.

Brett disguises himself as Lucy to take the diamond and the girls to Hollywood, so the brothers make up, and with Lucy’s help, they decide to go after Brett. The minions (who were noticeably absent in the film) escape prison, and long story short, they all end up saving the girls and defeating Brett. All of them acknowledge themselves as a huge family, and Dru steals the ship with the minions to cause some fun mischief.

Characters

What is there to say about the characters? No one really developed or evolved outside of Lucy getting used to be a mother, and I mentioned how they integrate that storyline could have been better. Gru just finds a new brother, as most of his development was in the first 2 films (it is clear that they are struggling to find him things to do). The girls are just filler and do absolutely nothing, other than be used as tools for us to think they are cute, and Gru is ehhh. Brett was funny at first with his childish villainy, but he quickly becomes one-note. None of them are unlikable, but nothing remarkable or easy to invest in.

Animation

Regarding the animation, it is what is to be expected from Illumination. Very cartoony, colourful, and bold. It is always nice to see the effects they use with the gadgets the characters use in the film. It,s fine, it’s good, maybe even great. Nothing really special, but Illumination’s standards are met with this.

Music

The music is very unmemorable. It is just the typical stuff that Illumination always does, which is fine, but I don’t really remember it. Pharrell sings a little bit here, and a little bit there too.

Reception at Release

When the film was released on June 30th, it has made (as of August 13th, 2017) made $247.7 million in North America, and $672.6 million elsewhere, for a worldwide amount of $920.3 million; officially grossing more than the Shrek franchise.

Critically, it received mixed reviews for many claiming that it lacks substance, but it has the same zany humour and animation that kept people engaged to the other films in the franchise.

Final Score

Story: 6/10

Characters:  6/10

Animation:  7.5/10

Music:  7/10

=  26.5/40 =  66%

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