The Minions are back with their very own spin-off movie, starring an ensemble voice-talents, but will it live up to the high standards set by Despicable Me? Or will it leave you feeling… yellow?
The story follows three minions and their search for a new evil master to serve. Their quest takes them all the way to Villain-Con where they meet Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock), the world’s most despicable villain who is plotting to steal the Queen’s crown. Kevin, Stuart and Bob’s (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) journey spans the globe, taking from Antarctica to Orlando to London, all in the 1960’s with some great ‘of the time’ jokes (a particular favourite being a billboard promoting Nixon as ‘a name you can trust’).
Minions started making me laugh right from the start, even before the actual story begins, with their unique rendition of the Universal theme music. Despite being very funny indeed, the prologue felt very familiar, as it was the main feature of the trailers released. This being said, a surprising aspect was that the best jokes of the film were not featured in the trailer and there are some brilliant moments that were unanticipated. For me, the greatest moments of the film is the Minions arrival in London, getting a true taste of tea-drinking, corgi-owning, socially polite Britain which, of course, the Minions then hilariously filled with chaos and destruction.
With the Minions being the centre of the film, there are not many English speaking characters which, at times, make the plot less detailed. Nevertheless, the language of the Minions is often just as funny as the actions and you quickly find yourself listening out for the highly unusual and often amusing word combinations that they use. I truly believe the Minion language will become the new Dothraki, with everyone soon wanting to learn it! Perhaps the only weak element of the film is Scarlett Overkill. Throughout the film, she doesn’t feel evil enough to be described as a good villain and isn’t funny enough to complement the Minions themselves. Alongside her husband Herb (Jon Hamm), feels very disappointing compared to the high standards set by the other supporting characters.
Overall Minions is a worthy addition to the Despicable Me franchise and I recommend, if you want a film that makes you laugh out loud, that you go and see it immediately, you’d be bananas not to!
8/10
Luke Norman
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