Sequelitis strikes again!

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2013)

If you're expecting a gripping plot and thrilling action sequences, this is not your movie. It's lighthearted, whimsical, and funny, but it lacks a compelling plot and lost some great characters from the first movie.
For example, Gru's mom (an important part of the last movie) made a three-second cameo near the end. Dr. Nefario, a hilarious but old scientist, is absent for 95% of the movie before he comes back miraculously to pull our heroes out of the frying pan. Finally, no closure or reference, aside from a single line said in passing, mentions the first movie. Did Vector die on the moon?
Unfortunately, the advertising led us to believe that Gru was going to save the world again from a threatening villain while trying to be a good dad. Instead, we get him tramping around after an overweight Hispanic man who manages to nail nearly every supervillain cliché in the book. Needlessly complicated plan? Check. Survived certain death with no plausible explanation? Check. Wanting to take over the world for no reason other than taking it over? (That is, as opposed to avenging a loved one or establishing a new empire). Check. Even Vector was a better villain than El Macho.
More importantly, I feel like the romances (Gru and Lucy and Margo and Antonio) were extremely forced. I saw no chemistry between Gru and Lucy at all, and the whole '147 dates later' thing just won't cut it. It seems like the whole movie was just set up to give the girls a mother, because it didn't make much sense otherwise.
The Anti-Villain League is barely mentioned again after its introduction, no mention is made of Floyd (the wig man) after his arrest, no elaboration on El Macho's survival or overall plans are made, no closure is given to the giant, indestructible monster!El Macho at the end, and so on...
Worst of all, the entire solution to the problem is completely a deus ex machina, meaning that they pulled it out of their *** in order to neatly resolve the mutant problem. I mean, seriously? An anti-mutagen that Nefarious just HAPPENED to have on hand, much less created in the first place?
The worst part of the movie for me was Gru himself. It was shocking to see how much he had changed from the first movie to the second. The entire gimmick behind the franchise was that Gru was evil, but still trying to be a good dad. The movie even has the word 'despicable' in the title, for crying out loud! Yet, Gru was nowhere near his deliciously evil self like in the first movie. Yes, he broke into a mall, and yes, he torches his phone with a flamethrower, but that's about it.
As I mentioned before, look elsewhere if you want a compelling movie or a plot that makes sense, but this movie is still a hilarious one for the kids, with some references that their parents will enjoy, too.