This movie tried too hard to play it safe.

Rating: 4/10 (7 December 2013)

I loved the first "Despicable Me", as it was a great movie. All the ingredients were there: The anti-hero Gru using three orphan girls to take on the world, while they use him to evade their orphanage and in the course of actions they all find themselves being a family. Simple and beautiful. Hence i was skeptical when i found out there was a second movie coming. And rightly so.
Sure, for itself it still is an acceptable movie with cute jokes. But it doesn't have the emotional values of the first one. The story is a slapstick secret agent plot garnished with some superficial coming-of-age ideas and a kitschy love-story. Nothing serious, about the depth of an average sitcom. It just plays safe.
And by doing that it sorta kicks the soul of its predecessor overboard. The worst is how the mandatory happy-end is handled. If you already bought the DVD, spare yourself the last five minutes, as they feel glued on with sugar icing. But honestly, spare yourself the whole movie, it's hardly the same quality as the first one.