Let Bob be Bob.

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2015)

Undeniably one of the funniest aspects of the Despicable Me films was the small yellow henchmen called the minions. One might wonder how best to make the most of this, given that the normal route would be to give them a spin off film – but the challenge would be to construct a film around small yellow creatures which speak in gibberish. This challenge remains, because with this film it feels a lot like they simply decided that if the minions stay themselves and remain funny, then probably few people will care that the plot is a mess.
And it is a mess, with characters all over the place, no meaningful throughline, and generally the thinnest excuse for the setpieces. Of course, it is still fun thanks to the minions being themselves, and when this is happening the film is absolutely fine. The human characters are the problem though, because they are weak – mostly just devices to make things happen. Although they are voiced by some very big names, mostly the cast do very little of value, and occasionally seem out of place or poorly used. However when the main three are doing their thing, the film is funny, fast, and enjoyable – just a shame that the actual frame it all happens within is so weak.
Despite this, it does have enough silliness and fun to get by, so I forgave it the mess of the plot and just enjoyed the trio being daft, which to be fair is probably what the makers were banking on.