Review: Minions & Monsters offers more of the same with some fun cinephile touches

I like the Minions more in theory than practice, and more as supporting characters than as the stars of the show. Their appearances in the Despicable Me movies have been more enjoyable for me than their spin-off movies where they take the spotlight. I've tried to figure out why. I think they're cute, funny, and the Minionese is fun to listen to and decode. Their antics are funny, but I think not clever enough, or maybe specific enough? They're chaotic slapstick agents who lack a strong identity beyond that, so the humor they're used to deliver is broad, repetitive, and ultimately pretty limp. There's not a strong sense of purpose beyond being silly and out-of-control, which is a fine mode to operate in, but certainly gets old after seven movies.

That said, Minions & Monsters at least goes a bit against the grain by having, for a while, a new perspective and unique setting for the little yellow dopes to play around in. For the first half hour or so of the film, I felt a bit giddy. Here's a movie that's packed with fun movie references and Easter eggs. Again, none of it is delivered with particular cleverness or nuance. That's not the way Illumination operates. The film's first proper scene puts us with a tour group being led through a Hollywood exhibit where the tour guide points to a statue of E.T. and says "There's E.T.!" You know, just to make sure we see that it's E.T.

Not all of the cinephilia is so mallet-over-the-head. The film's opening is delightful, popping the Minions into various early works of cinema, including Muybridge's animal photography experiments, Lumiere shorts, and even A Trip to the Moon. It's a silly send-up to the origins of the form.

And here's where I kind of don't care that I didn't like this movie, because at this point I know they aren't really for me. It's so cool that a big kids' blockbuster is pulsing with this love for cinema, and full of nods to the early days of film. For so many kids (and a lot of their parents), this is going to be the first time they've ever seen a bit of a silent film, maybe the first time they've ever even seen something in black-and-white. Obviously, a lot of the references will go over their heads, but they're getting introduced to Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin, even if they don't realize they are. They're watching a very fun spoof of Citizen Kane. Someday, some of these same kids who are yapping in the movie theater will watch that masterpiece and be like, "Wait...this is just like that Minions scene." That's pretty awesome.

While Minions & Monsters is in full-blown movie-lover mode, it's a really enjoyable ride. It plays fast and loose with pretty much everything, but that's probably how it should be for a fast-paced kid-friendly adventure. After a string of failed minion-ships, our particular tribe ends up in Hollywood, where they're tricked by a Western shoot, deciding to tether themselves to the actor playing the robber. The footage ends up catching the eye of the Bright Brothers, who run a big, starry studio. The Minions become fixtures of the silver screen, only undone by (of course) the advent of sound. It ends up Minions find it very hard to recite lines, if you can believe it.

This leads the main trio of Minions -- aspiring filmmaker James, his best friend Harry, and their hard-of-hearing friend Ed -- to strike out on their own. They decide to make a monster movie, and to use a book from their former boss (an evil wizard) to conjure actual monsters to star. 

It's at this point that movie makes a pretty strong pivot into just being another Minions movie. Suddenly, the Easter egg hunt ends, the classic Hollywood sheen fades away, and the story becomes a loud and mind-numbing romp with familiar beats that echo past outings. I was like...oh, it's just another one of these movies. Which maybe is better overall for general audiences? But for my movie-loving heart, it felt like a bit of a bait-and-switch.

Even worse, the rest of the Minion tribe is relegated to a truly bizarre subplot, where they become the servants of a robot (or is it a man in robot cosplay?) who strikes up a romance with a suffragette. Never mind that the end of the women's suffrage movement and the advent of sound in cinema happened more than half a decade apart. That I can forgive. But it's just such a random b-plot that feels like the writers shrugged and said, "Eh, good enough." By the time everything collides in the finale, I was exhausted, which I guess is par for the course with Illumination for me. I almost always find their movies to feel like riding a roller coaster that is constantly threatening to fly off the tracks, careening haphazardly through each tiresome turn. Sadly, this one is no different.

Then, in the film's final moments, it provides some additional context that feels like it's almost designed to make the prior nonsense criticism-proof. Which, fine, whatever, have it your way! All the stupidity was justified!

I hate to sound like a sourpuss over a movie that clearly has good intentions, is built with a lot of love for my favorite art form, and is sure to entertain a lot of (probably the majority of) the people who take time to check it out. I just want more for (and from) the Minions, and from Illumination. They have a lot of talented people working over there, and I want them to tell stories worthy of that talent. But in the meantime, I guess this will have to do.