Is It End of The Minions Already? (Minions: The Rise of Gru)

The Minions have been a worldwide phenomenon amongst children and adults alike since Despicable Me first graced our screens. As a sequel to the prequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru stylizes itself as the more prominent setup for towards the Gru trilogy. This sequel starts off immediately at where we left off with the Minions finally meeting their longtime boss, Gru as an eleven-year-old. 

Audiences would be expecting this Minion sequel to be more Minion-Esque, especially focusing on Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, but a huge chunk of the plot spends more time with young Gru on his rise to becoming the established villain we know him to be. However, this cannot be pooped on for that "The Rise of Gru" is on the subtitle of the title card. Nonetheless, there are a tad too many easter eggs and cameos from the main movies and exposition plot points towards Gru's eventual life as opposed to having more shenanigans with the only three Minions we knew by name. (With the exception of meeting another one named Otto, this time around)

Considering that this is a pretty big franchise, one would expect that writers would keep the Minions meeting Gru towards the third movie and have at least one more solo adventure but here, it almost seems like we were coming full circle as if was the end to the franchise. The only way they could continue is if they were to continue the Gru movies and once again leave Kevin, Stuart, and Bob to be forgotten within the (_inset collective noun here_) of Minions. It may sound unlikely, but if there was another Minions movie, what would it be about with Gru already in the picture? 

The MacGuffin of the plot centers around a pendant that apparently has the power to unleash the animals of the Zodiac, imbuing the abilities of the animals on whoever the carrier pleases. With this inclusion of the Chinese culture, the Minions suddenly are learning Kung Fu from a Michelle Yeoh voiced-acupuncturist to be able to help Gru in what probably seems to be his first villain adventure. This subplot almost seemed too cringe and almost unnecessary. Illumination (the company behind the franchise) probably wanted a little more Asian representation in the franchise but sometimes forced representation can make a narrative a little too on the nose. 

It was also confusing when it came to how the movie presented itself when it decided to start out with James Bond-like opening credits, teasing the adventure involving the Zodiac pendant to be a spy-like adventure, and throughout the 1 hour and 40 minutes, nothing about the movie could convince audiences that it was. 

There are a lot of negatives to pinpoint with this Minion adventure, but there's no denying the silliness of Minions themselves. This movie was hilarious and will get audiences to laugh out loud and to the point where they might wonder why the movie was so short, and that you had probably laughed so much that time passed by too quickly. Despite the plot not bringing anything new to the franchise or the animation bar itself, Minions is a good time at the theater with your family or friends.