Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
★★ — Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
By the time Minions: The Rise of Gru arrived in cinemas in the summer of 2022, the yellow, dungaree-wearing creatures at its centre had already conquered fast food promotions, birthday merchandise, and an entire corner of internet meme culture. What started as throwaway comic relief in the original Despicable Me had ballooned into one of animation's most commercially reliable properties, and this second Minions-fronted feature (set before the events of the main series) was positioned as the franchise's big post-pandemic return. The film is set in the 1970s and follows a young Gru as he schemes his way toward membership of the Vicious 6, a supervillain outfit whose flamboyant roster owes more than a passing nod to the kung-fu and blaxploitation films of that era. It is, in short, a prequel to a spinoff, which tells you something about how far the expanded universe logic has stretched.
Kyle Balda returns to the director's chair here, having previously handled both Despicable Me 3 and the earlier Minions. He is, by this point, the primary custodian of the franchise's visual and comedic identity, working again under the Illumination and Universal Pictures banner. Illumination have built their reputation on polished but unremarkable animation, productions that are clean and bright and efficient without ever really pushing the medium anywhere particularly adventurous. The studio's house style is very much on display here: the colour palette is vivid, the character models consistently well-rendered, and the whole thing moves at a pace that rarely lets anyone sit still long enough to notice what might be missing.
The voice cast is a reasonable draw on paper. Steve Carell reprises Gru, a role he has made his own across the series (and one worth comparing to his very different work in Beautiful Boy or, going further back, his earlier appearances in Little Miss Sunshine). Pierre Coffin returns as the collective voice of the Minions themselves, a performance that is essentially its own genre at this point. Taraji P. Henson, Julie Andrews, and the late Alan Arkin round out the supporting cast, lending some genuine screen-weight to roles that the script may or may not fully deserve. Jean-Claude Van Damme voices one of the Vicious 6 members in what is, at minimum, a piece of casting with a sense of humour about itself.
Another day, another Minions cash grab. The Rise of Gru doesn’t so much tell a story as shuffle through a checklist of loud noises, garish colours, and tired gags. We’re back in the 1970s, watching baby Gru try to join the Vicious 6 while three yellow blobs with no common sense cause chaos, grunt nonsense, and somehow remain the main attraction. It’s all been done before, and done better, back when the Minions were sidekicks, not the entire point. The animation is slick, sure, and there’s a faint pulse of charm in the retro soundtrack and kung-fu parody vibe. Jean Claude Van Damme as a egomaniacal 70s martial artist villain is alright. But it’s not enough to save a film that’s utterly predictable, emotionally empty, and creatively bankrupt. The plot is paper-thin, the stakes nonexistent, and the humour relies almost entirely on slapstick and repetition, the same jokes, the same falls, the same shrieking, over and over. It’s not the worst thing ever made, it’s too harmless for that. But it’s just nonsense in the most corporate, soulless way. A feature-length toy commercial dressed up as a summer blockbuster. The Minions aren’t funny anymore; they’re a brand. And this film is just another cog in the machine. Two stars for existing without actively ruining your day, just barely.
For me, that sense of the Minions becoming pure brand rather than characters is really the crux of it. There's a version of this franchise where the charm of the original carried forward, where Gru's oddball warmth and the Minions' anarchic energy felt like they were building toward something. Instead, what we get is a machine that has learned to replicate the surface of that charm without any of the feeling underneath it. I'll keep watching these films, probably, because that's what I do, but I'm watching them now the way you eat a meal that's perfectly adequate and immediately forgotten. Harmless, hollow, and on to the next one.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2025-08-14
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Kyle Balda: Despicable Me 3 (2017) · Minions (2015)
More with Steve Carell: Beautiful Boy (2018) · Despicable Me (2010) · Little Miss Sunshine (2006) · Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
