Some sequels don't have the charm that their predecessors had. If anything, most of them fall apart and mostly lead to a sequel that really doesn't make any impact on the story as well as not evolving its characters and or story. Luckily, "Despicable Me 2" is not one of those sequels. This is a film that carries the same charm and humor the first film had back in 2010, but gives us bigger laughs, funny new characters and also evolves the older characters which is something a good sequel should do. Want to know why it works? Well, here's a little brief synopsis which I'll try not to spoil as the trailers weren't exactly that revealing.
Sometime after the first film, Gru (Steve Carell) has been living a new happy life after he gave up being a supervillain and instead became a father to Margo, Edith, and Agnes (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher). Although he is a great father, he has been unsuccessful to do anything new as he even attempts to create new jams that lead to some humorous moments. Then he is recruited by agents, and partnered with one named Lucy (Kristen Wiig), who works for a secret organization known as the Anti-Villain League, an agency that tries to hunt down and eliminate top supervillains. Hoping for something to do to impress the girls, Gru accepts the offer and is put on a big case involving a toxic serum while not realizing that his Minions are mysteriously vanishing as part of a master villains plan. That's all I'm going to give you guys because I think you need to see the film to figure out where it will go.
The thing that works best about this movie is that it continues the story and not repeats it. It also does the same to the joke which Illumination gives us newer and fresher content and not the humorous moments of the first movie. Trust me when I say that some of the scenes are so hilarious that I was laughing so hard, I sometimes had to constantly catch my breath. Not only are the jokes made better, but the characters are also improved as well particularly Gru. The reason why is because he fully stands by his word and saying he won't return to evil and actually does certain scenes that are different from the first movie notably scenes involving Margo and a boy she has a crush on. The new characters are also a lot of fun as well. Lucy might be my favorite character in the movie. I really liked the funny and quirky personality she had which was brilliantly brought to life thanks to Kristen Wiig's fantastic performance. However, one thing I'm pretty pleased with the film is actually not in the film itself, but rather the marketing. It was very clever by not showing the villain and keeping certain story elements to a minimum which allowed us to guess where the story would be going. I was very pleased with this decision. As far as problems go, I could have used a little more screen time with Agnes and Edith. Although both characters got some laughs and had a considerable amount of screen time, I didn't think they got enough.
"Despicable Me 2" is easily one of the funniest animated sequels I've seen in a while. It steps up what made the first film great while also adding some new elements that make it stand out as a good sequel. I can easily say that this was a great sequel I've been waiting for and I hope I can get more in the future.
