Illumination's Despicable Me 4 Was a Waste Of Time...

so the new illumination movie Despicable me4 has finally dropped in the UK it was delayed by I think a solid week compared to the US and while I'd usually give the normal grumbles of why would you release a global movie in a separate time just because of regions turns out the reason at least this time around is football the Euros are currently going on right now and because England were playing we delayed everything a week so that that wouldn't clash and then England made it all the way to the finals so it clashed anyway I love marketing what a real Underdog Story I'm not a big fan of football so I just miss out either way regardless today I finally got around to seeing despicable me4 and I'll be honest I went in completely blind not even seeing any other review or commentary about this movie and maybe now that I've seen the movie I could work out why this movie again just isn't great anymore illumination as a studio I've actually been quite on board with for the last couple of years their most recent movie migration I didn't think was all that special or I didn't have high hopes for it although it did do pretty well in the box office as a bit more of a slow burner the time before that you then have the Super Mario Bros movie which absolutely exceeded expectations and was a massive success the biggest the studio has ever had and of course it is because it's a first party IP from Nintendo but even going beyond the side projects they brought out more recently the most relevant project of recent years from the Despicable Me and minions franchise of course comes from Minions 2 the rise of group and that movie alone fully turned me around on my perspective on the minions franchise as that demonstrated to me that illumination does still have it or they actually have something to begin with minions 2 was a movie I thought I surprisingly really really enjoyed because it had a great demonstration of iconic scenes great physical comedy fantastic slapstick moments and overall was just a brilliant film for everybody to watch now the minions franchise and the Despicable Me franchise are to be fair slightly different serieses and though minions one is quite a garbage fire of its own of a movie the Despicable Mi series as well has been quite consistently Naf and unfortunately with Despicable me4 it is very much the same while I thought minions 2 had some great iconic moments and some big brass moments despicable me4 is just kind of it's not so much only content it's slightly better than just content it's not a great movie maybe it squeaks by as good it is just your basic family entertainment isn't it really and I think there's a lot of issues going into why I think the biggest one is the fact that there is just an over bloated ensemble cast with this movie now it's to the point that they tried to fix it in some elements and then in other elements it just didn't work obviously you got the main guy guu and the minions right guu has a frontal story line right up front and center the general minions they didn't really get much of a plot you know the normal ones they were just there as background fod to deal with the Spy company but alongside the fact that we obviously have Gru's three children those have now been cast at the side because we have a new child in the form of GR RW Jr also the romantic interest wife character is about of course it is big family sure sure sure but on top of incorporating this new child that's going to completely replace the screen time of the other three daughters and probably should be a moment of character conflict considering these daughters probably should feel pretty overshadowed by how much Gru seems to care about the son and not the three daughters but we'll get there later you then also have the main batch of minions having five new minions pop up in the form of the mega minions they are a superhero parody 10 years too late and they're still not very good on top of the fact that you've got these six new characters on top of the already establish five you've then got the likes of Dr nefarious who's hidden as a background character who's left at the old home so that we don't have to talk about him and then you've also got Poppy the brand new villainous teenager neighbor who's kind of just like any other partner we've seen come in and out on any film before it then you've got the introduction of a brand new villain and the brand new villain's girlfriend who has seemingly little prevalence or relevance to the entire story at large there's a principal character surea a school of evil there's a badger now for a new pet to add to the compilation you've obviously got Gru's dog there's a goat as well like it is just far far far way too much but fine you know what we're not here for the characters we're here for the slapstick fun we're here for the iconic moments and what were they I couldn't name a single one as I understand it one of the best scenes in this movie is the supermarket scene where the wife and the daughters are getting chased by one of the sad clients at a hairdressing Salon I actually went to the restroom during that scene and completely missed it so that's great I guess you could argue things like the minion laser beam going down through the Arctic is in its own way iconic but it's it's just it's trailer fodder I don't know I think everyone that's involved in the trailer kind of gets lost on me in the main movie I just don't think this movie was fun for anybody but let's go through things in vaguely chronological order for all the million criticisms I have about once again another standard terrible honestly illumination Despicable Me movie so starting off I saw this movie the very first time I could the earliest morning Cinema slot I could find in the UK and surprisingly enough there were a good chunk of people oddly enough there were more people in their 20s than under 10 which is something to say for the audience of Illumination movies these days but hey I guess it is a school day maybe that's the interruption there but then even opening up the children that were in the cinema were quite vocal in this movie so I think I've got a decent idea of what was successful and what wasn't and you know what really lost the Steam for this movie immediately it was the prologue Scene It takes place in this evil school right where there's like an alumni award going on it's here we're introduced to our villain some Childhood school rival evil guy who's also a cockroach he is the least fun villain of the whole series and I don't think that's a stretch to say he's not that flamboyant he's not that well-worded and I got to be honest I don't think the children in my cinema were even able to understand him he's got a goofy thick French accent right and I I think it leans so far into a nonsensical accent that the children literally don't understand what he was saying especially considering in that prologue he's rambling about alumni Awards which in its own way is a weird phrase for children to pick up on every time he was talking the children went silent either because they're trying to understand him or they just outright didn't and I think that's a major flaw immediately to have to handle beyond that we learn that this cockroach guy is sent to jail and then he gets out and is giving death threats to GRU so he goes on the run and goes into witness protection essentially bit of a weird one when you think about it why are we hiding and running away this whole time how do they solve that oh will they defeat him and imprison him again by the end of the movie so you know just confront him head on and that problem would have been solved regardless by going to a new room there's vaguely some things to play around with it's it's not that adventive to be honest there's a vending machine that a minion gets stuck in and then I don't even think we see any of the internal bedrooms of this new room there's no extract of Gru comforting her daughters none of it is relevant in fact the only plot we get from the three daughters is the fact that they don't necessarily want to take on their different identities they have to go in witness protection they all get new names the youngest one doesn't want to lie so she doesn't in a karate session and then her older sister beats up the sensei okay that karate never comes back it's just his own little micro bubble that is all of the story for the littlest girl or other then that she left behind a goat and the middle child who's good at lying and will protect her sister against a sensate sure you've then also got the oldest daughter who doesn't want to move out and have to deal with new friends the teenagers in this new school are terrible they attack her with a glitter bomb and Gru does nothing literally doesn't address it doesn't talk about it doesn't do anything other than I've got to deal with my son like there could be a conflict there about how Gru literally doesn't care about them as much now that there's a new family member in the mix kind of classic in a sense cliched vaguely more important storytelling because by having so many people in this ensemble cast you're just watering down all of them hey there thank you for making it halfway through this video as per usual do subscribe if you haven't already if you want to keep up with any future animated movie reviews we're going to be covering the sausage part Amazon Prime series tomorrow so do stick around if you're interested in that otherwise I'll let you get back to the rest of our angry rambling of a terrible review that is Despicable Me for illumination doing illumination things add on to the fact then in fact this eldest sister Margo sorry uh Bri now even had a connection to the villainous neighbor because they went to the same school do they interact not really there's no element of seeing in the school with Bri and poppy poppy at one point Point visits the house and they hang out as a whole pack of girls for the sake of being in the same place at the same time for an action sequence but they do so little nothing they're like why are they even here obviously because they are obligated to but like it's really really poorly done then you've got the wife character right she also goes into witness protection she gets a new name called blanch she's chucked in the role of a beautician at a salon despite not really having the skills she ruins one client's hair and then that's it she gets chased in the supermarket story done for her it's not even arcs it is story dots it's a beat and that's it that's all we get it is genuinely horrendous Poppy the neighbor shows up starts blackmailing Gro after realizing that he is the evil villain of note forcing him to do a heist to that evil school again how does the geography work if it takes hours and hours to get out of town to the witness protection house how does it take so quickly to get to the school that's clearly the same way both way like to either house whatever tiny thing they steal a honey badger you know that's a a decent enough sequence although I feel like I saw far too much of it in the trailer that it didn't really hit that well and then beyond that she's just a partner that's about it's nice that because she's a young teenager she's not exactly perfect of the whole thing there's been loads of like grew adjacent Partners over the six odd movies and she just feels like another one it's not that investing really grw junor meanwhile is basically just a jackjack knockoff nothing can go wrong with him he's a bit grumbly at grw and that's the only thing he has to a personality makes sense he is essentially a newborn but then also he has the same hair as Jack Jack he gets taken away by the villain like Jack Jack he beats the villain just like Jack Jack but not in a way of all showcasing new superpowers no he's already shot with the Cockroach gun and becomes a cockroach and then just wakes up from the hypnosis through the power of love and that's not good it's just a more cliche version of the normal cliche in fact there's a sequence where the villain's like oh the Gru's now dangling off of a pole at this point and he says say bye da da and then the baby doesn't say anything and just comes out of the hypnosis in that moment for looking at dada and then later on says Dada for the very first time for everyone to go a isn't that cute I think it would have been more effective if he the in cockroach form the baby said bye da da in that moment and then by saying the words da da out loud while looking at Dada it starts to come out of the hypnosis because of that that would have been slightly more layered but no it doesn't give the r moment when everyone surrounding the baby witnessing which by the way feels like a too many cook sequence because grw and the baby end up Landing nearby to the villain and then all of the three daughters show up and then the wife shows up and then Poppy the neighbor shows up and it feels like literally everyone just rolling around together to build up the audience to watch the baby say a word it's very generic it's entertaining in the fact of switch your brain off enjoy it but none of it is Iconic none of it is good none of it is well done there's just so many beats to hit that they just skim through it as fast as they possibly can even on the minion side of things they're kind of not not big enough in the stage I guess it's cuz it's not a main minion movie sure but what happens is five of them are hired up to become a Fantastic Four parody you got the Superman type you got the thing type you got Mr Fantastic type you got the Cyclops archetype and you've got the Spider-Man archetype oh I guess that's still Mr Fantastic uh just a general super super strong one Mr Incredible whatever they then go out they have one scene all right they have one scene where they're put out to do their vigilante isms and it's just a standard parody of the power one parody for every Power that's it the laser guy lasers a bunch of cats and everything in the nearby vicinity the best one Mr Fantastic does the Spider-Man sequence with the train and then slingshots it backwards again that's vaguely intelligent it's the smartest thing they're out of the bunch they then get ridiculed for their one joke and then they go off they go on retirement okay no they do come back for one more thing uh during their retirement we see them all have engaged with animals completely separately for some reason one of them enjoys cows one of them enjoys bees all right fine they come back out of their retirement and what do they do they just run through the villain so that their relevant animals can do whatever they do it's so watered down it is like criminal that that's all of the marketing and it's boring as well they make a point about it one of the old ladies on the street says I'm sick of superheroes and that's the joke but also it is so watered down that it wasn't even worth really doing it is so nothing is done in any more depth level than two you know what I mean like they thought one beat cool it move on and that's it only Gru has anything more than a step and even then I don't really think he is he's just sort of like a plot device to continue forwards I thought there could have been a whole room with the villain's girlfriend who's been like the sort of robotic genius the whole time the partner in crime she doesn't do anything she doesn't have a moment I don't think she even talks to grw she's just there to help along she doesn't get defeated in the same way that the Cockroach guy does she doesn't have a big betrayal moment I thought she was going to be the surprise actual big bad considering she's from the fem fatel Club back of the old evil school but no she just exists to be the Romantic side partner of the Cockroach guy I guess someone to talk to and she goes into prison just like him it's stupid it's terrible it's just so illumination illumination of old I finally had motivation to enjoy an illumination movie I thought minions to was great and the Mario movie well you know not great to everybody from an actual critiques perspective as a fan I already enjoyed it and this is just right back to illumination schmuck and then at the end of the movie since the guy is defeated they go on to return back to their initial house we see Dr nefarious in a very small Cameo and then they do of course a dance number they do a talent competition cuz that's what the whole villainy thing was about they sing at the prison grw was apparently allowed to go into and you actually see every villain of old including minions ones villains with little gray streaks in their hair all dancing and singing to this song as a final seemingly actual Ender to the Despicable Me franchise which in its own way is very very good you even see the other things like Gru's brother in like a barbecue setting it does look like it's meant to be a definitive ending to the Despicable Me franchise they'll keep milking out the series but they'll probably just do it via the minions cuz they know that's more successful and somehow turns out much better than this bloated Ensemble mess even though they also announced that they're not going to age up any of the children so are they're going to actually keep using them I don't think it's worth it make a TV series expand everybody out slowly man cuz we don't need a cast of how many is it now grew wife baby three children five minions technically it's got the three minions from the Minion Minions you got the the nefarious as well Poppy the dog the goat the badger I think that's 20 I think I counted 20 so far and that's not including the British CIA guy it's all just far too much please just put in to it now you've shown us illumination that you really don't care and you're just not worth it anymore this was the most illumination illumination movie and that is a massive stain on what has actually been a pretty decent rollout in recent years the last three movies were great you you've ruined it on the fall and if it isn't the end of the Despicable Me franchise honestly I almost feel like I would be motivated to see a super collection of a movie of all of the villains coming out at once it'd be an even more bloated ensemble cast but clearly that's what they're going for and I couldn't believe the price tag of the voice acting cast if you have to include all of the villains of old as well but considering these kind of movies make illumination levels of money I reckon they could probably afford every celebrity to come back again sure why not we see them all dancing in the prison as if they don't have a grudge against grw anymore have a prison escape movie sure finish Despicable Me 5 on the biggest bloated idea you possibly could and then just run it back for the prequel the entire time from here this movie I waited an extra week and a bit to witness and it really really wasn't worth it I see now why people haven't been reviewing and talking about this movie it is just the usual pory schmuck that an illumination movie used to bring out a good 10 years ago at least in that way it's quite nostalgic and maybe that makes sense why there was suddenly far less children watching this in the cinemas and more people like me it's a more enjoyable movie in the ironic sense than the actual but on that note I'm going to win things off there my name's been Daz thank you very much for reaching the end of this review do let me know your thoughts on Despicable Me 4 I assume you knew this already I'm probably quite late to the party my apologies blame the entire country how dare they do decently at football now if you don't mind me I'm going to go and watch the sausage party Amazon Prime series what a lovely weekend to follow up for me and I shall see you in a little bit [Music] n [Music]

Channel: DazzReviews

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Keywords: dazz, reviews, dazzreviews, despicable me 4, despicable me, illumination, illumination studios, illumination despicable me, illumination despicable me 4, review, movie review, despicable me 4 review, dazzreviews review, animated movie, illumination review, dazzreviews minions, dazzreviews illumination, dazzreviews despicable me 4, video essay

Id: 1dWy1mo-e0I

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2024