Despicable Me - Not Despicable Enough  
| For me it is a bad sign when an animated movie lists the star voice actors during the opening credits. It says to me our movie isn't good enough to stand on its own and we want you to be dazzled by the big stars we've lined up for our movie. When Despicable Me started out that way I was worried.
This was a film that had excellent teaser trailers but as the fuller trailers came out the story started to look a little cliched. Despicable Me has a bit of a split personality. First there are the great characters who warrant a cool movie. Gru, masterfully voiced by Steve Carell, is the kind of character a great film should be based around. There is a tonne of potential here for a great adventure and a great layered character. His rival, Vector, is also delightful. The set up here is great.
And there are great moments for these guys. Unfortunately they get bogged down in their own plot, a plot that is far too pedestrian and predictable for my tastes. I do believe you could have shown the human side of a "super villain" through him coming to love adorable little orphans but this film trips over its own idea. The family bits are awkward (and not in a good way), not quite believable and most dissapointingly, not that funny. When Gru is trying to be evil and battling his arch nemesis, the film picks up. Too bad it keeps coming back to the family stuff.
Despicable Me is not a failure. It's mildly entertaining. But it's not the awesome, clever and unique film it originally promised to be. Perhaps Gru and his new family will have cooler adventures in the future.
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