A certain degree of disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2013)

I totally fell in love with Despicable Me. It's probably going to be on my list of Ten Best Films, so naturally I awaited with eagerness the premiere of Despicable Me 2. I watched all the trailers, teasers and Mini Movies with Minions - loved them all. Then I watched the film in full 3D.
Oh dear...
I always thought that there might be a problem with transforming Gru from a villain into a good guy, and I was right. Half of the humour in the original film was based on the fact that Gru is not a nice person.
Unfortunately, he has now been sanitized, virtually recreated as a good suburban father, albeit with some extremely strange habits.
Two of the best protagonists from the original film were ignored: Vector, last seen on the Moon with a polythene helmet on his head, and Dr. Nefario, who vanished for 95% of Despicable Me 2. Even Gru's mother, who had some wonderful cameo appearances in the original, was visible only once.
So, continuity from Film 1 to Film 2 - virtually none.
One of the great charms of the original film were the incredible inventions: the Farter Blaster thing, the Anti-gravity Serum, the boogie robots... This time there was nothing to take their place.
With Vector and Pointy-haired Man from the Bank of Evil Gru had worthy opponents, but the villain of this film was an absolute non-entity - I can't even recall his name without looking it up. All of the tension and interplay between the characters in the first film were missing in this one.
Another of the highlights of the first film was the music. Unfortunately, the soundtrack this time was completely forgettable, with the exception of a reprise of one of the songs from the original - Pretty Girls, I think it was called. Something like that... I was a bit busy yawning to note exactly which of the good songs it was. I just made a mental note and then went back to being slightly bored again.
Yes, I enjoyed it, for a given value of "enjoy". Who could help but enjoy watching those darling little minions? But I left the cinema feeling cheated: Despicable Me deserved a better sequel, better music, a better story line and far better characterisation.
I'm wavering between 5/10 and 6/10, but I'll plump for 6/10 because I actually liked the 3D effects. Without them I'd probably plump for 5/10