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movie review - Minions: The Rise of Gru

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2024.04.14

This is an animated prequel to the movie Despicable Me from ... 14 years ago! It features the sequence of events by which the "super-villain" of the original movie became who is is. As with all prequels, it is unnecessary and also quite stilted as events have to have a certain outcome so that the original movie can happen.

And so, what unfolds is a nonsensical plot involving some magical stones or something. There are betrayals, absurd violence for an eleven year old to be exposed to. Lots of idiotic one-dimensional characters and the wrong lessons being learned. Come to think of it, the main character seems to grow up in the US, so it's not clear where his characteristic accent comes from. That feels like a missed opportunity. Perhaps if this had been set in the Balkans we could have had something more.

Not recommended. But you know what, if the kids want to see it, what does it matter.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner