Sidekicks started becoming the new protagonists in 2011 with Pixar’s mediocre “Cars 2”.  Since then, we’ve seen a number of other sidekick stories that are usually okay at best and a waste of time, examples of the worst being “Puss in Boots” and “The Penguins of Madagascar”.

Now we have “Minions”, the little yellow guys who popularized the “Despicable Me” movies.  Everyone likes the minions but this movie is missing the key ingredients that made the first movies great: the little girls that change Gru’s heart.  Without dynamic characters, this movie suffers from a staleness that rivals “Cars 2”.  There was no character development, as the minions were not created to develop.  They were supposed to be comic relief sidekicks: the extra ingredient that can make a good movie great.  They can’t make a good movie by themselves.

As for the plot, it sucked.  The minions were a species that lives only to serve a boss, but they couldn’t keep a boss.  After centuries of failure, they took refuge in an isolated cave, but they withered without a boss.  Finally, Kevin decides to go and find a boss, accompanied by Stuart and Bob.

However in one of the short films that came with the first movie, we learned that one strand of mutated DNA created the minions.  This implied that the minions were Gru’s creation as opposed to a millennia-old species.  That concept seemed to make much more sense than what was in this latest movie.

The other characters in this film were even more obnoxious than the minions themselves.  Queen Elizabeth was a repulsive depiction, nothing but a satire of the real deal.   Also, a family of villains picked our heroes up at one point to get them somewhere.  They didn’t play any important role beyond that, but they still showed up every now and again, and supported the minions.

Sandra Bullock played villainess and antagonist Scarlet Overkill, who initially hired the minions.  Why did she waste her talent on this film?

Thankfully, the movie wasn’t all that bad.  While Scarlet was a poorly constructed character, she used some pretty original gadgets.  Also, though the energetic Bob was nothing compared to the girls in the previous films, his innocence and kindness warmed my heart.  The film’s climax was decent at the very least.  The end of the film was also very cute, easily one of the best parts, and that’s not because it ended the woes of the viewers.

Sadly, all these perks couldn’t save this movie from feeling like a waste of time.  It was tolerable, but if your kids love the minions, they might enjoy this movie.  
To read the full review, head over to The Cougar Chronicle’s website, or read it on Zach’s blog “The Reluctant Critic.”