Uninspired, unimaginative, annoying, but still somewhat fun.

Rating: 4/10 (24 July 2015)

Minions, the prequel to the 2010's hit, Despicable Me, attempts to tell the minimal story of how the loved yellow creatures came to meet the criminal mastermind, Gru. Without a doubt, the little banana lovers have an undeniable charm, and from a marketing point of view, Minions has everything to become a major hit, as it seems it was built to please the huge amount of fans all over the world and to support the unlimited capacity for merchandising of the franchise, and as such, Minions succeeds. As a movie, not so much.
The filmmaking is left in second place. There isn't an actual narrative, character development, conflict or consequence. Everything is shallow, emotionally blank and devoid of any meaning. The film just exists.
On the bright side, there are still quite a few laughs in the film, even though, the humor gets old soon, as the creatures early begin to lose their appeal and start to become more annoying than anything else. There is a reason why the minions work as a support piece in Despicable Me and it is because they are built to be just that. It's not surprising that the film looks like a collection of short clips stitched together, as the storytelling power of the creatures is more limited that it looks. Still, it is somehow shocking how unimaginative everything is. Almost every scene is built around an overused sequence with minions in it - it's often hard to tell if the movie is built around references and tributes or if it is the result of a baffling lack of imagination.
But overall, it is still, somehow, fun to watch and there are still some things to appreciate in the film. The inadequacy of political correctness of the franchise and the sometimes dark sense of humor of the little creatures, are more than welcome in a family movie and certainly appreciated by older audiences.
In the end, and despite everything, viewers who unconditionally love the characters or viewers with young children will surely enjoy the film - very young audiences will probably love it, but it's questionable if anyone else will.