Despicable Me 3

Going in, I was expecting this to be pretty weak. I wasn't in the mindset that I was going to hate it, just that at best, it would be OK. It's the 3rd (4th if you count "Minions") entry in an animated film series. Most franchises by this point have thrown in the towel as far as effort is concerned and just said "Forget it. Put little to no effort into this. Just put something together to shut kids up for 90 minutes. They'll eat it up anyway." Happy to say, that was not the case with this one. Not only was there effort, but they've also learned from their mistakes. I said in my review of the second one that the film had too many scenes focusing on the Minions, which overshadowed the rest of the plot. They remembered this time that people like the Minions, we just like them in small increments that are few and far between. They were in it for maybe 15 minutes of the whole thing. I feel one way the film could have improved was to flesh out the villain a little better. I thought he was one of the best parts, and would have loved to see more. He's a former child star, mentally trapped in the 80s, and so there are a lot of 80s references and songs. This was a concept that I felt could have done more than what was done here. They had so many oppurtunities with this that they missed out on. I would have loved to see more 80s references. The plot was pretty paint-by-numbers, and I could tell for the most part where it was going to go, but some things still surprised me. Not my favorite in the franchise, but certainly not the weakest.

Grade: B    8/10     3.5/5 stars