Minions – Film Review
Evolving from single-celled yellow organisms at the dawn of time, Minions live to serve, but find themselves working for a continual series of unsuccessful masters, from T. Rex to Napoleon. Without a master to grovel for, the Minions fall into a deep depression. But one minion, Kevin, has a plan; accompanied by his pals Stuart and Bob, Kevin sets forth to find a new evil boss for his brethren to follow. Their search leads them to Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first-ever super-villainess.
Over the course of the past ten years, the Minions characters from the immensely popular and successful Despicable Me movie franchise have become one of the most iconic fictional characters ever created. It’s a bit weird, isn’t it? They don’t really have any distinct personalities that make them compelling or anything. They’re just small yellow creatures that love to eat bananas and speak gibberish.
Kids all around the world seem to love the Minions. I remember when Despicable Me came out, I was ten years old. Despite not having seen the film, I don’t have any memory of actually thinking the Minions were cute or funny or anything like that. I never got the appeal behind them. Maybe some kids do find them to be genuinely hilarious and fun to watch, but I personally don’t.
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
That’s why I was quite skeptical going into Minions. It looked like it was just going to be ninety minutes of the yellow creatures doing goofy things and talking gibberish for the entire film, and sadly, that’s exactly what it is. There is no moral or message to the film and it never even attempts to tell a fun and memorable story. It’s just mindless craziness for an hour and a half that may entertain the little ones, but adults are going to find themselves snoozing throughout.
Minions is the perfect movie to put on your television in the hopes that it will keep your children busy while you’re at home with them one day or something like that. The Despicable Me movies have been hailed by critics and audiences alike for being enjoyable for the whole family, but Minions is definitely a movie that’s probably going to be enjoyed only by children.
But really, it all depends on what kind of films your kids like. If your kids like smartly told and funny stories in their animated movies, then they’re probably not going to find too much to like about Minions. But if they don’t mind watching a movie in which a bunch of yellow creatures get up to various different mindless and dumb shenanigans, they’ll more than likely have a good time.
The film isn’t all bad, though. Illumination Entertainment is the studio responsible for producing the film, and just like always, their animation style is terrific here. It’s kind of interesting how so many of their projects boast some truly stunning animation but suffer greatly in the storytelling department. This is another prime example of that.
Plus, there were some instances in which a couple of the jokes managed to make me chuckle, but they were so few and far between that I can’t honestly call this a truly funny movie. It’s a non-stop crazy train of energy but in that hour and a half, not much of real substance is ever showcased.
Minions may entertain small children, but others are going to find it an extremely annoying and hugely flat animated story with no real substance behind it.
Overall Grade: D
MPAA Rating: PG for action and rude humor
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, Geoffrey Rush
Directed by: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 10, 2015
Running Time: 91 minutes