Gru meets his long-lost charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother Dru who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist.

The ‘Despicable Me’ series has been pretty consistent to this point, delivering a colourful mix of slapstick humour and silly but entertaining plotting throughout the course of 3 movies (including the spin off focusing solely on the minions), but ‘Despicable Me 3’ marks the low point for the series to date. It retains many of the elements that made the earlier films such a big success but it’s guilty of throwing too many plot elements at the screen, hoping some of them would stick and finding that nothing does. The fact that the minions are barely part of the main narrative, yet still remain the standout aspect of the film is particularly telling in that regard.

The narrative this time revolves around supervillain turned good guy Gru (Steve Carell) and his partner Lucy (Kristen Wiig) attempting to hunt down a faded 80s TV star turned supervillain, whilst also dealing with the discovery of Gru’s long lost brother Dru (also Carell). Meanwhile there’s a side plot revolving around the minions leaving Gru and making out on their own, with the most comical results of the film. The minions are used sparingly here and that is one of the few things that work. Many people love the colourful, giggly creatures but I’m of the opinion less is more, and they were used well in the third movie, never outstaying their welcome like they threatened to do in the previous films. The primary plots with Gru’s brother and the supervillain Balthazar Bratt are only sporadically entertaining (disappointingly given Bratt is voiced by ‘South Park’s Trey Parker), and the 80s references and music feel kind of lazy (although some bits are enjoyable).

‘Despicable Me 3’ is the weakest entry in the series to date and whilst it’s still colourful and zany with some solid slapstick moments, it’s a lot more scattershot and doesn’t quite come together to make an entertaining movie.

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda

Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate and Julie Andrews

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/