drwex | We saw "Despicable Me 2" and it was disappointingly juvenile (Reply)

The movie is basically OK. I'd give it (barely) 3 out of 5 stars. Some of that is because it doesn't have the novelty factor. The original D.M. was hilarious in part because it was unexpected. Our kids wore their "minion" T shirts this time and we all remembered how good the minions had been when we first met them and didn't know what they would do. This time it's generally predictable and where it isn't predictable it's "funny" at the level of a fart joke. Repeated several times.

If you're 10 or 12 this probably is hilarious; fart jokes generally are, at that age. My suspicion is that because the plot of the movie involves romance for some of the characters they felt they had to put in fart humor to keep the boys interested. That's sad and sexist, imo.

The movie is also sort of lacking in the over-the-top spy gadgetry that made the first one more fun. The original Despicable Me was in the vein of Get Smart/Danger Mouse/Inspector Gadget, which I very much enjoyed and which I missed this time. Having taken out the gadgets they just didn't have anything to replace with, and it shows.