MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU (2022)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*                                                                                                                                                  I recently finished reviewing the last couple of DESPICABLE ME films, concluding with the note that I wouldn't mind seeing an end to Felonious Gru's adventures. I had a similar feeling toward the idea of giving Gru's jabbering henchpersons their own feature in 2015. Even while admitting that these films weren't made for my age-group, I thought MINIONS was no more than competent formula comedy. That film ended with the intimation that the mustard-colored munchkins were finally going to hook up with their destined master Gru, still in his bitter grade-school years, but I could not have cared less.                                                                      

To my surprise, I found that I liked RISE the best of all the movies in the franchise. I suppose that some of my reaction stems from the script playing up the "seventies vibe" of Gru's youth, and nowhere is this better seen than in the villain-group Young Gru aspires to join:  The Vicious Six. All six of these notorious super-villains constantly pull off major crimes that earns them Young Gru's adulation, as well as having punny names whose humor might require explanation to kids of a certain age. I myself didn't get the significance of the name given to the group's eldest member and leader, "Wild Knuckles." But whatever the meaning, Knuckles gets special treatment by his comrades, because in the midst of a major heist with the aim of conquering the world, the other five betray their leader. Knuckles survives the betrayal and plots vengeance. Meanwhile, the quintet put out the word that they need a new sixth so-- they can keep the same name??                                                                                             

   The seventies vibe also helps sell the franchise's penchant for combining Lucas-and-Spielberg thrills with wacky humor, but I stress that even though the Minions are the headliners and have their share of funny scenes, RISE only works because Gru is a co-equal member of the starring cast. His outcast status from the normie world makes Gru hunger for validation from other outcasts, so when he's rejected from member-consideration because of his age, he steals the Five's world-conquering doohickey, hoping to impress them. The ruthless robbers want their gizmo back and are willing to pulverize a little kid to get it, while their renegade partner Knuckles also puts the snatch on Young Gru and subjects him to torture-- okay, a funny version of torture, but still. Nevertheless, through all adversities Gru never wavers from his desire to become a great villain, and eventually he impresses Knuckles enough that the elder-statesman criminal does forge a mentor-student relationship with the eight-year-old.                                                     

    Of course, in a kids' film with a scattershot approach there's stuff that doesn't work well, such an extended sequence in which three Minions learn kung fu from an Asian acupuncturist (Michelle Yeoh). But the trio's newly acquired martial skills play an important role later, so the sequence justifies itself in the slam-bang finish. But RISE's best facet is giving audiences the chance to see Gru's early villainy unfettered by all of his adult self's later attempts to become a Square Citizen. Steve Carell provides yeoman rendering Gru's weird accent into a kid-voice, and four of the Vicious Six are embodied by talents made famous by action-movies and TV: Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, and Danny Trejo. But while we might see Respectable Old Gru in theaters again, I suspect this is the final bow for Young Felonious.