Minions & Monsters review: Sorry, Minions, you can make a better movie than this

Ode to classic Hollywood is all fine, but the third installment in the Minions prequel series barely amuses. 

Rating: ( 1.5 / 5 )

By Mayur Lookhar

Illumination and Universal Pictures have combined to create the universally popular Despicable Me franchise. The spin‑off Minions prequel series, however, needed refreshing. In a bold move, Illumination decided to give Kevin, Stuart, and Bob a break and plan the third instalment of the Minions series with new minion characters. It is seen as passing the baton – or, more appropriately, passing the banana. Honestly, given how difficult it is to distinguish between most Minions, their gibberish language, and that Pierre Coffin has long been the voice of all Minions, it doesn’t really make much of a difference to the naked eye.

Director Piere Coffin and co-writer Brian Lynch take us back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, basing their story around new minion protagonists – James, Henry and Ed.  Set in the 1920s–30s, this naturally predates the events of Minions (2015) by a few decades.

Story

James, Henry, Ed, and co. gatecrash into an action movie scene, chasing the villain in search of their new villain boss. Out of reels, director Max (voiced by Christoph Waltz) fears that his producers, the Bright Brothers, will be mad at him, but to his utmost surprise, they love it. Thus begins the journey of the Minions in Hollywoodland. Lured by the idea of winning an Oscar, James and Henry decide to make their own monster movie. To keep it real, they summon real monsters, hoping this Minions & Monsters movie will bring them the coveted Oscar. But the real always plays out differently from the reel.

Screenplay & Direction

For a decade and a half, these capsule‑shaped cuties, created by Sergio Pablos, have charmed the globe with their innocence and adorable stupidity. One has overlooked the very idea of their existence – to serve a super‑villain. Hence the name minion, described in the dictionary as, “A servile dependent, follower, or underling; someone who is devoted to and dependent on a stronger person, often in a sycophantic way.” Swayed by their cute looks, have we, all these years, inadvertently encouraged bonded labour?

Hey, take it easy: this is a cartoon world. That’s true, but after all these years and seven films, the Minions now feel repetitive. Credit, though, to Coffin: for the first time, his Minions, though still eyeing a super‑villain, have a dream of their own. They save the earth on their own accord, not dependent on a master, and the action here is by design, and not default.

Regrettably, the film takes too long to reveal its primary conflict, resulting in the dullest opening 45 minutes and proving a real stretch. The early action serves as an ode to the classic Hollywood era, beginning with silent films before graduating to the early era of talkies, which perhaps makes it easy for the Minions to slip into those homage scenes. The portly Bright Brothers are a nod to the Lumière Brothers. Though not part of James and Henry’s movie, there is the alien robot Dorth – an obvious reference to Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), who falls to the charming tone of Debbie, a strong‑willed suffragette.

All this nostalgia, homage, and feminism is all fine, but where is the movie in it? Where is the entertainment? There are few moments of genuine humour, mainly in scenes involving the monsters, but by large this third film is a big bore and feels distant from the previous experiences.

Voice performance

As stated before, the common looks, Pierre Coffin being the has long been the gibberish voice of Minions, that you can’t really distinguish James, Henry, or Ed from Kevin, Stuart, and Bob.  The old Hollywood referencing is likely to cater more to local tastes, but the rest of the world eyed more fun, more amusing stupidity from the new Minions. It’s here though the action, drama disappoints,

The monsters, though, are intriguing. Trey Parker voices Gary (or Goomi), who is partly inspired by Cthulhu – a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. Though much smaller in size, the character design and Parker’s tone make it a likable character. So, too, are the other monster characters Phillip and Howard, voiced by Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr respectively. Their designs are fine, but if only they were armed with better writing and better comical action.

Final thoughts

In our humble view, as entertaining as the Despicable franchise and the Minions have been, the Minion spin‑off franchise has never really matched the Despicable experience. Shifting eras, new leading Minions, and classic Hollywood references give an impression of a new dawn, but Coffin & co. will have to significantly improve the stories if Minions franchise is to build a true legacy.