A Lighthearted and Unexpectedly Great Movie.

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2015)

I loved the Despicable Me movies, and while I was highly anticipating this movie, I did have some doubts. But after seeing it twice, I can say that this is a great spin-off to a fantastic franchise.
Firstly, the animation looks gorgeous; each character is nicely detailed and coloured and the backgrounds look astonishing in their own ways. In addition, the character models look very unique and distinguishable, with no one model looking similar to another. But the main part that makes this movie great is it's clever humour and witty dialouge. The jokes are funny without being stupid or predictable and the dialouge definitely feels like it was written in the late 1960's, which is when the movie is set. The movie is also very historically accurate. When the Minions that where left in Antarctica make it to Sydney, the Opera House is still under construction. The Opera House wasn't complete until 1973, making the movie accurate and well researched.
Unfortunately, the movie wasn't perfect. One of the biggest problems with this movie was the main villain Scarlet Overkill. Now don't get me wrong, I thought the character and her motivations were fine, I just felt that her personality wasn't as exciting and playful as the trailers told us. While Sandra Bullock did a great job at voicing her, she occasionally sounded bored and uninterested. I wouldn't have actually minded if her husband, Herb, was the main villain, as he felt cool and energetic throughout the entire movie. Another thing I didn't like was how under-utilised the Nelson family was. They were funny and matched the tone of the movie perfectly, but their only purpose was to give Kevin, Stuart and Bob a ride to Villain- Con. What made it worse was that the father, Mr. Nelson, was voiced by Michael Keaton, one of the most talented people in this movie, and he felt completely wasted.
But overall, I thought that this was a great movie. Beautiful animation, clever humour, witty dialouge and historical accuracy all make it a blast to watch with your friends and family.