There’s no denying the popularity of Illumination’s Despicable Me franchise, with worldwide box office earnings for its combined offerings in the multi-billions. It’s safe to assume that many kids and their parents will be rushing to the theaters over the long Fourth of July weekend to see the animated comedy Despicable Me 4, which hits the 2024 movie calendar on Wednesday, July 3, but will mom and dad enjoy the experience as much as their little ones? That’s up for debate, as some critics are railing on the newest installment, while others are perfectly fine with more Minion antics.
Two years after Minions: The Rise of Gru, Steve Carell’s villain is back for the animated comedy Despicable Me 4, and you know he’s brought along his little yellow henchmen. Let’s get to the critics, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Despicable Me 4. Our own Dirk Libbey rates the movie just 1 star out of 5, writing that when the movie inevitably finds success at the box office, it won’t be because of its compelling story or hilarious jokes, because those don’t exist. He continues:
All theatrical releases exist to make money, but Despicable Me 4 feels like a film that was given a release date before anybody bothered to come up with a reason to make it. There clearly wasn’t a compelling story to tell here, but rather than just wait until somebody actually had an idea, Illumination moved forward regardless, putting together a collection of the best ideas they had at the time.
Matt Donato of Paste agrees, rating the film a 2 out of 10 and warning that however bad you think Despicable Me 4 is going to be, it’s worse. The plot feels like a collection of shorts Scotch-taped together, Donato writes, and the low-hanging fruit of children’s animation fails to even achieve the simple formula of “Gru + Minions + Cute = Haha.” The critic says:
There isn’t an ounce of recommendable substance, soulful values or slapstick sincerity within Despicable Me 4. If you like watching animated yellow tushies in denim overalls jiggle, maybe you’ll chuckle a handful of times. If you require literally anything else from a movie, this sixth Despicable Me universe entry can’t deliver. Despicable Me 4 is unfathomably incompetent, even considered in ‘Television Babysitter’ terms, where an animated children’s flick’s sole job is to keep underage viewers quiet and attentive for an hour. Whatever sweetly adorable, warm-and-fuzzy charms put Despicable Me on the map have evaporated, leaving behind the fatigued, unmotivated, empty-on-the-inside husk of a once-watchable supervillain comedy.
Leigh Monson of AV Club grades it a D+, calling the movie a “bore,” though it will inevitably be “good enough” to become yet another mainstream blockbuster for Universal and Illumination. However, Monson says, “good enough” is the enemy of “good.” The critic continues:
Illumination Studios seems to have cracked the code for mainstream blockbuster success, not by being any good, but by being merely ‘Good Enough.’ Good Enough distracts even the shortest attention spans. Good Enough keeps parents from feeling alienated by their kids’ tastes. Good Enough is a yellow Minions bucket hat that makes you feel in on the fun while the theater reacts to cartoon slapstick with deathly silence. Good Enough is a few bland chuckles uttered in a vacuous 90 minutes you struggle to remember even as the credits start to roll. Good Enough is a black hole, of which Despicable Me 4 is the singularity. I, for one, am really, really sick of Good Enough.
Other critics, however, think the sixth franchise feature far exceeds “good enough,” as Dominic Griffin of Looper says it’s an “unassailable success” as far as a way to kill time with the kids, even if that is a low bar. To Griffin, the Minions do the heavy lifting, and all forthcoming films should focus on them. In the critic’s words:
If you were sat at a desk with a pencil and a pad, gun to your head, forced to rank the film's finest moments, every single one of them involves the Minions themselves. The three Minions who stay with the family have an ongoing gag where they change Gru Jr.'s diaper like a Nascar pit crew. They also execute a number of amusing Three Stooges-esque physical comedy gags at one another's expense. But the film also finds a fascinating way to answer the question as to why a franchise so built around supervillainy doesn't appear to have any superheroes.
Neil Pond of Neil’s Entertainment Picks agrees, saying it’s hard to not to love the little mayhem-making sidekicks, who in this movie threaten to steal the comedic spotlight from Steve Carell and Will Ferrell. Pond applauds the infectiously clever comedy, writing:
Jokes abound in the zippy script (co-written by The White Lotus’ Mike White) and the crazily creative visual riffs on everything from James Bond gizmos to Tom Cruise aerial stunts, Austin Powers outlandishness, Transformers, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and even Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock, by way of A-Ha. You won’t find many other movies with such an eclectic mix of plot devices and sheer throwaway sidelines gaggery, including a hyper honey badger, Minion-officiated tennis, a giant flying robotic cockroach and a baby billygoat that confuses the command to ‘sit’ with, well, something decidedly messier on the floor.
The critics seem to be thoroughly split on Despicable Me 4 — it holds a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing — though their opinions might not have much bearing on parents’ decision to see the film, with many kiddos likely calling the shots when it comes to revisiting the world of Gru and his Minions. So throw some bananas in your bag, grab your weird Minion souvenir cup and catch Despicable Me 4 in theaters starting Wednesday, July 3.
