This franchise has taken a turn to become a couple of memorable movies for better and for worse. The first movie is nearly exceptional in combing both the values of family and villainous deeds that pays homage to other spy films. The second movie was decent. Minions was too much of a good thing and it became annoying after a while. So, going into this movie, I had a good level of anticipation going into it because I hoped bring back that winning formula of having a good family film, a very good spy comedy and an entertaining villain and of course, the Minions could return into their supporting roles. They have some things right, but it is a scattered film that sort of amounts to nothing. However, the villain almost nearly saves the movie.
A former child star, Balthazar Bratt (voiced by Trey Parker), has been constantly rejected by Hollywood and other executives who do not want to hire him. When he hit puberty, his fame withered and his show was cancelled. Brett and his robot henchman, Clive (voiced by Andy Nyman), are staking out a ship carrying the world's largest diamond. He uses his heist music (a pop soundtrack) and his self-inflating bubble gum to trap the ship's guards. But, Gru and Lucy (voiced by Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig) plus a couple of Minions are on the movie as Bratt claims the diamond. They are on the ship and both Gru and Bratt dance-fight, however, he escapes.
At the Anti-Villain League HQ, Director Silas Ramsbottom (voiced by Steve Coogan) has been retired and now Valerie Da Vinci (voiced by Jenny Slate) takes over and has now fired both Gru and Lucy for letting Bratt get away. Gru and Lucy find that the girls - Margo, Edith and Agnes (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Nev Scharrel) - have set up a honeymoon in the backyard since they have not had one after they got married. The two reluctantly tells them they got fired. The Minions have lost hope on Gru, since he does not want to go back to being a villain. Gru learns he has a brother named Dru, who is rich and wants to be as villainous as Gru was.
This has not been a fantastic year for animation like last year and unfortunately, the streak continues. The screenwriters felt like that even though they have a great and winning formula with memorable characters such as Dru, the girls and the Minions, they cannot do much with the characters. I felt like I was watching three different movies and they do not gel as much. If your kids or little relatives want to see the Minions, you might have to state that there are not as much in this movie as there was in the other movies because I felt like they were answering us their marketing tactic like they knew that the Minions movie was being carried away. They could not find the right balance as they set them aside as players on the bench that being supporting players.
As for the main characters, I did not feel as much empathy towards Gru because he is not as interesting as the villain or the brother. It is because the filmmakers set aside his redemption and then sticks into that formulaic humor within the family households with a reunion with his twin brother and that is when the humor would potentially start to kick in but it gets inconsistent. And, even though they want us to care about the reunion, they add in an unnecessary theme of Lucy wanting to be a better mother to the girls that does not take off. It is a nice addition but it is not a worthy addition to a third movie. However, Dru wanting to be a villain is quite interesting and a bit funny almost traces back to the original.
Lastly, the storyline involving the villain was the best factor of the film. It almost rescues the movie as Trey Parker is sensational voicing a villain that is trapped in the 80s, mixing both a flashback to the pop songs with some flashy humor. I wished that some of the fluff that was stored in this movie could have been more organized and have been more thought through to make a contained and memorable third chapter of the franchise. There are bits and pieces of the fresh elements from the first movie but the movie does not quite pull it off. But, it is not going to be a punishment for the adults as kids will be entertained once again.
**1/2
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