Despicable Me 2
Jan. 1st, 2014 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI got Despicable Me 2 as half a double pack for xmas, and have now watched it. I initially liked it okay but something has been bugging me.
The first movie was all about parents and children, with Gru and his girls and his mom and the bank manager and his son. And the minions were part of the family, with the kissing goodnight bit. In the second movie Gru gets kidnapped by a woman who is recruiting him for a new job. After she arrives he spends less time with the girls and so little time with the minions he doesn't notice they've all been kidnapped. Also he decides someone is a bad guy based primarily on his son dating Gru's adopted daughter. This all looks like a set up to a problem to me. A relationship that takes the parent away, or work that means they ignore their kids, those are problems and relationships that don't work out because kids are more important.
Like, the littlest girl was imagining she had a mom, and at the end of the movie did the cute recital at the wedding bit about having a new mom, so if this movie matched like a bazillion other stories about single parents meeting new partners then the important bit is the new mom forming a relationship with the kids. Except in this movie, the new mom spends ZERO time with the girls! Seriously, I don't think they even spoke to each other. She wasn't noticeably nice to minions either. So she isn't the new mom, she's just the new colleague and potential girlfriend, so the story doesn't fit together properly.
She liked Gru more than she liked her job, giving up a career opportunity to be with him, but that's more of a problem in the portrayal of women. I mean, Gru wasn't particularly impressive. Why would she choose him?
Also the bit with deciding his daughter shouldn't date, it was sort of cute because the gimmick is he's a villain, so he's being a villain at her new boyfriend. Except then it turns out he was right about who was the bad guy, on zero evidence, and the boy dumps his daughter, and then it's not him being a villain and learning a lesson, it's validating creepy 'overprotective' behaviour. The date was all age appropriate behaviour, he just had decided there shouldn't be any boys. Why does the story reward him for that?
Also the first movie has Gru choose his villain job over the girls and decide it was the worst mistake ever. The second movie gives him a sort of a hero job and he chooses it over the girls and the minions and ... the girls join him at work and he gets the girl and there's a shortage of bad consequences even for neglect that left them vulnerable. It was stupid, like the problem was villain job vs hero job, when it was really making lots of money vs caring for his family. All the words at the end are about looking after family, but the story hasn't been. It contradicts itself.
So I think I liked watching it because it was a string of interesting enough incidents, but it continues to bug me because the whole story, when put together, doesn't seem to have the right heart. It doesn't seem like a sequel to the first one. So I'm a bit disappointed.
The first movie was all about parents and children, with Gru and his girls and his mom and the bank manager and his son. And the minions were part of the family, with the kissing goodnight bit. In the second movie Gru gets kidnapped by a woman who is recruiting him for a new job. After she arrives he spends less time with the girls and so little time with the minions he doesn't notice they've all been kidnapped. Also he decides someone is a bad guy based primarily on his son dating Gru's adopted daughter. This all looks like a set up to a problem to me. A relationship that takes the parent away, or work that means they ignore their kids, those are problems and relationships that don't work out because kids are more important.
Like, the littlest girl was imagining she had a mom, and at the end of the movie did the cute recital at the wedding bit about having a new mom, so if this movie matched like a bazillion other stories about single parents meeting new partners then the important bit is the new mom forming a relationship with the kids. Except in this movie, the new mom spends ZERO time with the girls! Seriously, I don't think they even spoke to each other. She wasn't noticeably nice to minions either. So she isn't the new mom, she's just the new colleague and potential girlfriend, so the story doesn't fit together properly.
She liked Gru more than she liked her job, giving up a career opportunity to be with him, but that's more of a problem in the portrayal of women. I mean, Gru wasn't particularly impressive. Why would she choose him?
Also the bit with deciding his daughter shouldn't date, it was sort of cute because the gimmick is he's a villain, so he's being a villain at her new boyfriend. Except then it turns out he was right about who was the bad guy, on zero evidence, and the boy dumps his daughter, and then it's not him being a villain and learning a lesson, it's validating creepy 'overprotective' behaviour. The date was all age appropriate behaviour, he just had decided there shouldn't be any boys. Why does the story reward him for that?
Also the first movie has Gru choose his villain job over the girls and decide it was the worst mistake ever. The second movie gives him a sort of a hero job and he chooses it over the girls and the minions and ... the girls join him at work and he gets the girl and there's a shortage of bad consequences even for neglect that left them vulnerable. It was stupid, like the problem was villain job vs hero job, when it was really making lots of money vs caring for his family. All the words at the end are about looking after family, but the story hasn't been. It contradicts itself.
So I think I liked watching it because it was a string of interesting enough incidents, but it continues to bug me because the whole story, when put together, doesn't seem to have the right heart. It doesn't seem like a sequel to the first one. So I'm a bit disappointed.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-02 01:53 am (UTC)It does sound like it went in a different direction than the first. Some sequels do that. Intentional overcorrection, maybe?