Despicable Me 4 Review: A Fun Minions Movie But Doesn't Live Up to Its Full Potential

Despicable Me 4 Movie Review: Gru (Steve Carell) and his Minions return for another fun ride and this time around, we’ve got his wife, the girls, and Baby Gru joining the fun. Despicable Me 4 has all the elements of a fun DM film — the gags, the out of control Minions, an unimaginable yet hilarious archnemesis and a robbery that everyone will remember. And yet, Despicable Me 4 felt like I wanted a little more, a couple of moments more to truly enjoy this film.

Directed by Chris Renaud and written by Mike White-Ken Daurio, Despicable Me 4 gets off on a great start. The film doesn’t waste time in introducing the supervillain that Gru and his Minions will face in the fourquel — a half-man and half-bug Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell). Their rivalry dates back to the time they were in villain school. But this time around, Gru was working for Anti-Villain League and came to capture Maxime.

Thirsty for revenge, Maxime breaks away from jail to kidnap Gru’s newborn son, Gru Jr. As a result, Gru ends up in protection, forced to change his and his family’s identities while hiding from the bug man. Eventually, Gru crosses paths with an aspiring villain named Poppy (Joey King) who plans a big heist that could help her build an impressive resume for the villain school. While Gru returns to his baddie ways, his cover his blown and soon, the bug man and Gru are made to face-off.

As I said, the film has all the elements to make it an epic Despicable Me film. However, the writers overstuff the sub plots. As a result, the film falls short of doing justice to each character. Gru and Poppy’s rapport set the screen on fire with their camaraderie. But it felt like it wasn’t brewed enough. I wanted to see more of the girls as well, especially since they were put in a new spot and had to embrace a forced change. A few more scenes on them would have paved the way for some hilarious moments.

Nevertheless, the movie is entertaining. I loved Chris Renaud bringing in a superhero touch to the Minions. The Fantastic Five inspired Mega Minions were a treat to watch. I laughed the hardest during their scenes. Bravo on that! I also enjoyed the portions featuring Übelschlecht (voiced by Chris Renaud). In her scenes with Gru and in the villain school, her character had the best moments.

The film also had some funny gags set up in several scenes that had me laughing out loud. One of which was a jail-like room in the villain school dedicated to ‘good kids’. Another scene was featuring one of the Minions sipping on tea within the vending machine during an intense scene, what an epic moment.

A bow down to the music of Despicable Me 4 as well. While we already knew that BTS’ Dynamite was going to feature in the film, the makers have added an interesting mix of songs that are going to take fans by surprise.

Bottomline: Despicable Me 4 is a fun movie that is going to leave you in splits, but it is a tad bit disappointing that the film doesn’t live up to its potential.