Thursday 23 July 2015

FILM  REVIEW:  MINIONS
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Chairman Mao and Kim Jong-un, what do all these people have in common? The minions would probably follow them. The minions' existence is solely based on following the most evil leader they find, as the opening, which is the film's best part, shows us as they follow a T-Rex, Dracula and Napoleon but thanks to their clumsiness they can never seem to keep a master for very long. So with no one to follow the minions slowly become depressed and aimless as they hide from the world in their snow cave. But Stuart, along with Kevin and Bob, make the brave decision to leave their cave and find a new master.

There is no getting passed the fact his is a film solely created to entertain children, sure adults can enjoy the childish gibbersish and forget that the film doesn't have a plot but instead is joined together by one catastrophe after another. When the creators of Despicable Me released the first film back in 2010 they never could have guessed how popular their little yellow creations would have come and most of us are still wondering how exactly it happened. The minions in the first film were fun because the small amount of time they had on screen causing mayhem was childishly funny, it was short and sweet. Then the marketing people at Sony realised what they had on their hands, and how much money they could make, so the sequel featured more. Yet Minions' most avoidable flaw is that short is sweet and short this film ain't. While ninety minutes is average for an animation, it is too long for a short, which this film should have been. The first ten minutes are a lot of fun thanks to the use of Geoffrey Rush's voice over and than once we are left in the sole company of the minions and horribly written one dimensional Scarlett Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) it becomes obvious that no amount of childish gibberish hides the fact these guys can't handle their own film.

With all this in mind it does make it difficult to review the film on the same basis you normally would. This film was never really meant to be enjoyed by adults, it doesn't have the smarts or sophistication of a Pixar film nor the adult undertones that please all age groups. The cynical adult in all of us understand that the film is a marketing ploy in order to rinse as much money as they can out of the little yellow beings, its more like a ninety minute toy commercial than a film, but children seem to lap up the minions' shenanigans. So, who are we as cynical, jaded adults to tell kids what they can and can't enjoy?

2/5

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