DESPICABLE ME 2 (2013)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*                                                                                                                                               I've screened DESPICABLE ME 2 a couple of times before this and have usually thought it was just "more of the same" as the first film. Yet on my third screening, I still laughed in four or five places, which usually doesn't happen once I've seen a comedy.                                                                                                                                    As a result of Felonious Gru (Steve Carell) forswearing his former career of villainy for his three adoptive daughters, he's taken up the life of a single dad in suburbia. Because he is a bachelor, though, an annoying neighbor lady keeps trying to fix up Gru with one of her unattached friends. On a more heartfelt note, the youngest girl shows a need for a mother she's never had.                                                              

Enter new romantic candidate Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), an agent of the Anti-Villain League, a cadre of villain-fighters seen absolutely nowhere in the first film. On the orders of her superior, Lucy abducts Gru so that the AVL can seek Gru's expertise in villainy, to figure out who might have stolen a government-made mutagenic agent. Lucy also brings along a couple of Gru's Minions, apparently for no reason except to give them the chance to giggle at the name of the AVL leader, "Ramsbottom." (You know it's a kids' film by the fact that only the "bottom" part of the name amuses the Minions.) Gru refuses to help the AVL at first, so they return him to his home. However, Gru's longtime aide in infamy Doctor Nefario (Russell Brand) announces that he's leaving Gru's respectable employment to hook up with another villain. Gru changes his mind and decides to help the AVL, possibly to ferret out Nefario's new boss, and Ramsbottom teams Gru up with Lucy. The three daughters encounter Lucy and immediately decided that she ought to become their new mom.                                                                                                           

  Despite several slapstick mishaps, Gru proves integral to the investigation when he recognizes a supposedly honest restauranteur as a former villain-believed-dead, El Macho (Benjamin Bratt). However, the AVL targets another supposed villain as their suspect, and terminates Gru as their agent while ordering Lucy to take a new assignment in Australia. Gru soon realizes that despite the many ways Lucy aggravates him, she also has a special charm. Maybe it's the fact that they both share rather prominent proboscises?                                                                                                                                                                                             If DM2 has any major failing, it's that El Macho is too derivative of Gru himself, since Macho's main plot involves using the stolen mutagen to turn Gru's mild-mannered yellow servitors into bloodthirsty, near-invulnerable monsters. Gru must find a way to reverse these brutish transformations and to rescue Lucy from the clutches of El Macho, which more or less duplicates his rescue of his future adoptive daughters from their kidnappers in the first film. It's a more pleasant follow-up than many sequels, so that's at least a minor win.