Very disappointing and unnecessary prequel

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2015)

The first two Despicable Me films were fantastic family fun, so while the idea for a prequel starring the minions did strike me as pointless the trailer was promising. However, what promise the trailer had wasn't really there in the film itself.
Minions isn't without its good points. Apart from some awkward human character designs, the animation is excellent, with its rich bright colours, meticulously detailed backgrounds and imaginative visuals. The killer classic rock soundtrack is another plus, it is very catchy and upbeat while not being too loud or obtrusive. There is a hilarious opening sequence, which is the funniest Minions ever gets and John Hamm does provide a few amusing(but not much more than that) moments. The voice cast deserved much better and didn't shine as much as they ought to, but Geoffrey Rush is a thoughtful narrator, John Hamm has some fun and Pierre Coffin does well characterising the minions.
Regarding the rest of the voice cast though, Sandra Bullock very much underplays her blandly written villain character and the film makes a complete waste of Michael Keaton. Everybody else suffers from not having much to do or being underused, the Nelsons could have brought some heart to the story but weren't used anywhere near enough and were quite bland. The story suffers from being structurally thin, with very little narrative padded out to try and sustain the running time (which it did sometimes struggle to do) and rushed, and had very little of the heart and charm that the first two Despicable Me films did. It is also incredibly predictable and has very little different that sets it apart from other origin stories, and felt like an extended version of the trailer.
Generally, the humour isn't smart or sharp enough and there is not enough of it(the very aimless second half is especially lacking in the laughs department), some of it veering on juvenile and with little for adults to enjoy (a mistake seeing as what made the two Despicable Me films so winning was that they had something for everyone). The script is more muddled and over-stuffed (from trying to cram in too many types of humour) than clever, and has some clumsy attempts at acting hip and cool. As said before, there is not much heart or charm here, and the lack of truly memorable characters and lack of identifiable themes is a huge part of the problem. The minions are very funny supporting characters and scene stealers in the Despicable Me films, but they are not utilised enough and they don't seem strong enough to be leading characters carrying the film on their own, so what made them so appealing at first is lost here.
In summary, very disappointing and unnecessary prequel. 4/10 Bethany Cox