Review: “Despicable Me 4” Family Fun but Worst of Franchise

By: Robert Prentice

Rating:

The 6th film in the Despicable Me franchise has arrived seven years after the last one. The 2022 Minions: The Rise of Gru earned over $1 billion at the box office, so how does the latest return of Gru fair in the franchise, check out our review below.

In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s Despicable Me 4. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal (Emmy winner Will Ferrell) and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara), and the family is forced to go on the run.

Review

Gru and the minions are back, and with a baby Gru in the family, Gru is finding his work in the AVL is putting his family in danger. To protect them, he goes into witness protection and all the goofy antics break loose. The charm of the Despicable Me franchise has always been the bumbling nature of Gru and his desire to be a villain while also adopting the 3 girls Agnes, Margo, and Edith. And of course, the goofy mumbling Minions who somehow get the job done even if half-baked at the best of times.

After such a huge showing for Minions: The Rise of Gru, there was hope that the 4th Despicable Me would continue to propel the franchise forward. However, it falls flat compared to the other films in the franchise. My opinion is that it takes the bottom spot in the rankings within the franchise. The main villain’s big desire is to be a cockroach, or at least have the body of one and he even has an army but none of it leaves the audience laughing or vested in Gru winning because the villain is just so bad.

The minions and Gru are separated for most of the film except for the core 3 who are with Gru for the entire film and that leads to a rather dry and unfunny comedic side to the entire film. Even as I sat in a public early screening with families and kids watching, there was little laughter or excitement from the younger crowd as we have seen with the other films.

Still, for the holiday weekend, if you need a family film to go see, I would recommend hitting up Inside Out 2 first. If you have already seen it or the Minions are your kids’ favorite characters, go check out the film as it will still be enjoyed by the kids, even if it’s the worst in the franchise to date.