Despicable M3 (1 Viewer)

[Edwin-S]

Took this in tonight. Overall, the worst of the 3.The film was all over the place, as the writers apparently didn't have enough material to create a coherent story for the film's running time. The quickest way to describe the writing in DM3 is to compare it to a skit that used to appear regularly on "The Canadian Air Farce".

In the skit, an air cannon would be loaded with with chickens, spaghetti or some other food stuff and then be fired at the political target of the week. It was like a vastly toned down version of Hustler's "Asshole of the Month" feature.

Anyway, that is what the writing in DM3 was like. It was like someone loaded an air cannon full of spaghetti and sauce and fired it at the wall. Whatever stuck ended up in DM3.

As parts, some of it was amusing such as the Minions in State Prison, but as a whole it never really gels and just becomes sort of a mess of discordant noise. It is probably time to hang it up on this series. There isn't enough gas in the tank to go any further with this franchise if DM3 is any indicator.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

That's a pretty good summary.

"DM3" suffers from "Sequel Syndrome". Each new movie needs to add characters to keep things fresh, but each new movie also needs to service the existing characters.

In "DM3", this leads to a slew of barely-related storylines that get crammed together so all the established characters get their screen time, and it makes the end result a mess. The competing plot points don't connect well and they mean the film feels confused and overstuffed.

Seriously, how many story elements can one short movie contain? We have the Gru/Dru relationship, Gru/Lucy's desire to get their jobs back, Lucy's attempts to be a mother, Bratt's evil antics, Agnes's quest for a unicorn, Margo's "romance" with a local, Minion Mel's rebellion and probably other bits I forget. It's way too much.

Admittedly, I was never a big fan of the franchise, but "DM3" feels like they're running on fumes. The movie's just such a mess, and the quality of the comedy and action doesn't overcome the flaws.

The villain feels weak and shoehorned into the mix. Bratt reminds me too much of the first movie's Vector - they're not clones but they give me a similar vibe, and Bratt never manages to develop into his own character. He's just an excuse for lots of cheap 80s gags.

Dru also feels like a gimmick - "Gru has a brother!" He exists to reflect Gru's journey and doesn't stand on his own well - like Bratt, he gives the movie a way to explore easy jokes but he doesn't do anything notable on his own.

Heck, even the 3D was a disappointment! The first 2 movies had cool/fun 3D, but this one didn't use the 3D well at all...

 

[Greg.K]

I liked it. The franchise may be running out of steam but I thought this added to it rather than just milking it further. Kind of liked all of the 80s references too.

 

[Malcolm R]

With nearly $500M worldwide already for DM3, and over $3 Billion worldwide for the franchise, we'll be seeing more of these in the future (Minions 2 is scheduled for 2020). Not to mention that Illumination Entertainment seems to make these films very economically compared to their competition. Budget for DM3 is reportedly $80M, and that's their most expensive to date.

They also have yet to have any of their animated features close below $100M at the domestic box office (8 films over 7 years; lowest domestic gross is Hop at $108M).

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Haven't seen it yet (will probably wait for the blu), but although I like them, most criticism against this one could just as well be directed to any other in the series.
It's not really Oscar material, nor was it ever meant to be, it's just good fun.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Haven't seen it yet (will probably wait for the blu), but although I like them, most criticism against this one could just as well be directed to any other in the series.

If you read my comments, you'll see my criticisms can't be directed to the other movies. "DM3" is overstuffed with plot/character elements in a way that didn't impact the other 2 or "Minions".

And if "DM3" had actually been "good fun", I wouldn't have minded as much, but it was dull and forgettable...

 

[Chuck Anstey]

My wife and I saw DM3 opening weekend and we both disagree with the negative reviews. These spy type of movies are made or broken by the quality of the villain and DM3 had the best villain of the 3 by far. The plot actually made sense and had a natural flow from start to finish, except again the minions are their own pointless plot line and did detract when on screen. DM1 had the most heart with a good story and DM2 was the random collection of attempts at funny scenes, with the girls seemingly shoe-horned into it for heart / cute, and a weak villain.

We put DM3 on par with DM1 and can't wait to get it on Blu..

 

[Tommy R]

My wife and I saw it last night, and though we both think it's good and worthy of the series, we did think a little something was missing. We couldn't quite put our fingers on it right away, because we really did like it (especially Trey Parker's Evil Brat), but I suppose the family dynamic between Gru and the girls is getting pushed to the side a bit which is such a strength with these movies. There were definitely some sweet well done moments, but that's the only thing I can think that may have been worked better. We still really liked it though.