Minions & Monsters – Movie Review

Minions & Monsters, director Pierre Coffin’s latest work, was praised as “frenetic, fuzzy, practically amorous love letter to Old Hollywood,” and “the most invigorating any of these films has ever felt,” by film critic Roger Ebert. This sequel to the fan favorite movie Despicable Me 4 begins when James, Henry, and Ed’s Minion group continues their tiring search for another “big boss” villian leader while the trio strive to become movie film stars. When the three once again come across the long-forgotten spell book they took from their third “big boss” Warlock, they summon Goomi, a deceptively cute demon monster who pretends to help them find other monsters for their project. When Goomi and his cruel sea monster friends, Howard, Phillips, and Irene instead try to destroy the universe, the Minion trio’s original group and their new “big boss” swoop in with laser-equipped alien spacecrafts to shoot Irene and turn her to stone.

According to movie review websites Letterboxd and IMDb, the family-friendly film was praised for giving the Minion protagonists more character depth compared to previous movies. Additionally, Gru’s absence was also appreciated because the Minions were able to shine in the movie without a human hogging the spotlight. On the negative side, critics pointed out unecessary subplots in the film behind the main plot, such as the romance between a womens’ rights activist and a robot. They say it made the movie feel like an extended animation instead of an actual film. Some viewers also mentioned that the first 45 minutes were confusing, and others even called it boring. I agree with this because some scenes were predictable and made me think, “Here we go again!”

Turning to the statistical side, Rotten Tomatoes, another movie and TV show review website, showed that the movie was rated 89% Tomatometer and 75% Popcornmeter. This means that 89% of film critics and 75% of audience members gave the movie a positive rating. Metacritic stated that 66 out of 100 viewers rated the movie positively, and IMDb’s average rating for the movie was 7.0/10. I personally would rate the movie an 8 out of 10–+8 for the animations, humor, and overall plot, but -2 for the sideplot.

As someone who has never watched the previous Minion movies, I can’t really compare this newest movie with the older ones. However, I can still compare it with TV shows I’ve watched as a kid, and I would say that the dreams, goals, and character arcs of the Minions made the movie stand out a lot more. Overall, this movie is a 100% commerical success and something you should definitely watch in your free time.