If you’ve been following my reviews, you know my stance on sequels very well. For the record, I am not always against sequels. Sequels are perfectly valid as films so long as they make sure to meet certain criteria. First, they must stay true to the spirit of the original film, recognizing what made the prequel great and what made it appeal to people. Second, it must be sure to bring fresh material to the table so as to remain a strong film on its own. It’s a delicate balance, and even slight variations potentially skew the entire project.
Films like Despicable Me 2, Universal’s sequel to the 2010 animated comedy Despicable Me, upset me so much because it shows no reverence for either of these two necessities. It alters the tone and setup to the film to such a degree that it might as well be a completely different film; and it rehashes so many of the prequel’s jokes and material, so the sequel offers nothing fresh itself.
Despicable Me 2 opens with the mysterious theft of a laboratory from the arctic, which allegedly contains an incredibly volatile experimental chemical weapon which can mutate living organisms into dangerous, rabid beasts. In a desperate move, the Anti-Villain League contacts former villain Gru, the protagonist of the first film and voiced by Steve Carell, requesting that he use his past experience as a supervillain to help them track down the stolen lab and chemical. Gru teams up with secret agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), and together the pair begin investigating the odd case; their zany misadventures include breaking into Mexican restaurants, wrestling with purple minion monsters and uncovering a conspiracy laden with history and betrayal. What’s more, matters become more complicated as Gru begins falling in love with Lucy, setting the stage for even more awkward, over-the-top antics.
All of this sounds great for the type of film this is, at least in theory. The primary issue with the plot is that it takes an enormous step backwards from the characters, atmosphere and plot elements of the first Despicable Me. Make no mistake, while the cast remains the same between the two films, this is a sequel in name only.
For a film named Despicable Me 2, there really isn’t very much despicable about the protagonist. Gru is meant to be an abrasive, standoffish, plotting, dastardly fellow, albeit with a soft spot for his three adopted daughters. To them, he is a villain with a heart of gold. This setup allows Universal to play around with the hero-villain formula, taking a character who is evil at his core and still making him inherently good. Furthermore, Gru is constantly juxtaposed against characters, such as his adopted daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes. This allows his character to grow and come to mesh with fundamentally good people, despite his naturally evil disposition. It is clever, charming and allows the character to grow in believable and compelling ways.
However, for that sequel, Universal decided to take Gru’s soft side and amp it up to 11, removing everything that made the first one so interesting to watch: It took a character who is meant to be, at best, an anti-hero and converted him into a full-on hero of justice. This artistic move takes all of the edge off of the previous film, making the subsequent one feel extremely “safe” by comparison. Gru, despite taking a vast amount of the screen time, barely undergoes any character growth at all. His investigations largely just slapstick with little compelling background, and his love story with Lucy is so bland and uninteresting that it may as well not be in the film at all.
As for the rest of the cast, they may as well not be in the film either; everyone besides Gru, Lucy and a few newly introduced characters are pushed so far into the background that they’re essentially non-factors. This is upsetting because Miranda Cosgrove and Russell Brand both give very strong performances in their respective roles, but neither of them actually do much in the film.
The animation, as one would expect from Universal, is top notch. Everything is handled by the same animation team from the first film, and as such, maintains its quality. Granted, this is a Universal film. Audiences shouldn’t expect anything even close to the level of Pixar or even some of Disney’s more recent animated work. The tone of the film is much more slapstick, and the characters move in such a way as to match it: somewhat stiff but capable of wide ranges of motion. While nothing groundbreaking, the animation is certainly passable and is among the better work Universal has done.
In all, the film just doesn’t offer enough to make itself worth a watch. It takes many serious steps back from what made the original so much fun to watch and relies on slapstick to replace the presence of a meaningful plot. Couple that with the fact that many plot points are underdeveloped, the cast isn’t given enough to do, and the fact that the film’s gritty edge has been worn away, and what you get is a sequel that is in every way inferior. It is not the first to go down this path, nor will it be the last, but it must be recognized for what it is: overly-safe, lukewarm and completely devoid of any innovation.
Universal, next time you make a Despicable Me film, please, make it despicable.
Overall rating: 2/5
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