Day 91- Movie 91. Despicable Me (2010)

2010 has to be known as one of the better years for animated films. With Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon alone, the year could be considered fantastic. I was interested to watch Despicable Me to see if it would further the belief that this was a great year of animated films. Unfortunately, I was horribly disappointed in this movie. I thought it was boring, shallow, and poorly written. I didn't like this movie at all. I'm shocked that it made so much money at the box office.

The story follows Gru, a supervillain, determined to steal the moon. His life is changed when he adopts three girls to use in one of his diabolical plots. I actually had a very hard time believing the story. Yes, almost all animated movies are completely unrealistic, but this movie just pushed those boundaries too far. Stealing pyramids and the moon seemed weird and uninteresting. The whole thing just seemed so stupid to me. I'll say this- I found Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to be a more believable movie, and that film featured a spaghetti tornado and giant pancakes falling from the sky. This film was just so poorly written that it was hard to pretend anything here wasn't completely ridiculous.

I don't think I'm spoiling the movie if I mention that the main focus is about Gru and how his life is changed for the better by these three girls. The movie telegraphed this in all the commercials, and it's amazingly predictable. I understand and even support "bad" characters turning their lives around, but what was it in this film that led Gru to make that change? He hated the three little girls, who were very annoying to him. They go to an amusement park for a few hours, and suddenly he loves them. I was never convinced of his change of heart. Characters need to grow and develop over the course of the film, but Gru's transformation was completely and totally unbelievable to me (and don't try to convince me that the piggy bank scene did it, because that was even less believable).

I'll also say that I pretty much hated Gru's stupid minions. This might be partially because of the relentless ad campaign (I swear I saw previews for this movie for a good year before it actually came out), and it's partially because they were a cheap effort to make the movie seem "cute" and "funny." I just didn't buy it, as I thought that the minions were mostly pointless and stupid.

The whole film felt very weak and flat. There weren't very many emotionally powerful moments. This film especially pales when you compare it to Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon, two films that proved animated movies can tell original, unique stories while also hitting the audience on a deeply emotional level. Despicable Me simply does not compare on any level to those films. It's a movie composed of recycled themes and ideas from other movies, instead of creating new stories or ideas itself.

I can't believe I'm the only person who strongly disliked this movie, but maybe I am. I did a little research and I was surprised how many critics loved this film. There were a few dissenters, but it was almost universally praised. I honestly can't fathom how so many people liked this movie. I found this to be a boring, completely forgettable attempt to cash it on perceived "cuteness" instead of telling a truly compelling story. I bet 90% of the people who try to defend this movie would say- "But the little girl was so cute!" Cuteness doesn't make a great movie. That would be compelling characters, exciting stories, emotional highs and lows, etc. Despicable Me has far too few of those. I'm giving this movie a 5.5/10.

So, if you loved this movie, I'd be glad to hear why. I'm curious how you think it compares to Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon.