I don’t think it will come as a big surprise to anyone if I say I’ve never really loved the Despicable Me franchise. It has some fun ideas. And I love the Minions. But I hate the stories. With seven years passing since the last direct Despicable Me movie, could the writers have taken the time to craft something less despicable in this fourth outing?

The answer is no. This is where I usually write a short recap of the plot, but there really is no plot. The film is quite literally, five or six different short movies stitched together haphazardly. And every few minutes we cut to see what’s happening in the other story. Most of the storylines never connect to one another. Bookends at the beginning and end are the only attempt to provide some semblance of cohesion.

I see you, reader, after that paragraph assuming I’ve exaggerated some to make this review more click-bait-y. But I assure you, that is not the case! Gru has a story with a neighbor. Gru has a storyline with another neighbor. Lucy has a storyline with the kids. The Minions have a storyline. And the villain has a storyline. Only one of Gru’s storylines and the villain storyline ever cross paths and that only happens near the end. Everything else is basically filler to make this feature length.

In previous movies I’ve praised the music choices of the filmmakers, but here they must have been unremarkable because I can’t remember anything of note.

Despicable Me has always had great performances from its villains, and the streak doesn’t end here. Will Ferrell was completely hidden in his role as Maxime Le Mal. I saw his name in the opening credits but never realized that was who he played until the end credits. And Joey King has a lot of fun as aspiring villain Poppy Prescott. As for the rest of the returning cast, everyone seems to have picked up where they left off in the previous film — except Steve Carell as Gru. For the first ten minutes or so of the runtime, I honestly thought something must have been wrong with his voice when he recorded his lines.

I apologize for how short this review is. But there really isn’t much to discuss here. If your kids like the previous films, they’ll probably like this one. All the sequels are cut from the same cloth. If you enjoy the humor of the previous films (and admittedly there are laughs to be had), by all means go see this one too. But for everyone else, it’s criminal how little there is in Despicable Me 4 to recommend for you.

		Despicable Me 4 Illumination July 3, 2024 94 minutes rated PG directed by Chris Renaud