Review by Jon Donnis
Minions The Rise of Gru is a prequel to the 2015 film Minions, and the 5th film overall in the Despicable Me franchise
Steve Carell stars as the young 12-year-old Gru, and Pierre Coffin as the voice of the various Minions.
The year is 1976 and a young Gru voiced by Steve Carell dreams of becoming a supervillain, he has even hired his own little Minions to help him.
One day Gru receives an audition invitation from the Vicious 6, a Supervillain gang led by Belle Bottom (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), they have recently turned on the founder of their group supervillain Wild Knuckles (voiced by Alan Arkin) while stealing the Zodiac Stone and kicked him out of the group, and presume he is now dead.
Gru attends the audition along with other supervillain wannabes, but the interview goes badly, and they mock Gru due to his age. Somehow however Gru manages to steal the Zodiac Stone from them, he escapes with Minions Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, but when cornered he hands the stone to Otto and tells him to meet him at the basement lair.
Back at the Gru's basement lair, Otto steps forward and hands Gru a large pebble with googly eyes on it, Otto had swapped the Zodiac Stone for the pebble at a child's birthday party. Furious Gru fires the Minions.
Gru goes off alone to find the stone, but is suddenly kidnapped by Wild Knuckles who survived, he wants the Stone that the Vicious 6 tried to kill him for and decides to hold Gru hostage and gives the Minions 48 hours to return the Zodiac Stone or Gru will be killed.
Kevin, Stuart and Bob try to find the stone but fail so instead decide to travel to San Francisco to rescue Gru, Otto meanwhile goes in pursuit of a Biker who has the stone as a Necklace.
What follows is a really fun film, that is suitable for the whole family, not just kids. We have the Minions learning Kung Fu from Master Chow (Michelle Yeoh), we have Wild Knuckles start to bond with Gru after his newest goons leave him, and we have an epic final fight scene that is some of the best animation I have ever seen.
The Good
Minions The Rise of Gru is a funny, clever and kick ass film. I loved it from start to end.
The Bad
Can I really complain about the plot? It is a bit basic, but what do you expect for a film like this? Multi layered character work, and storyline arcs? Some people ask for too much.
Overall
Brilliant film, kids will love it, teenagers will love it, adults will love it, and old people will have no idea what's going on.
I score Minions The Rise of Gru a solid 9/10
In Cinemas Now!
