When a new movie is coming out, everyone wants to talk about the villains. But what if it’s a Minions movie? The whole point is that the Minions are the villains, despite the fact that they are also little and yellow and lovable.
And in this case, the Minions actually meet the young man who initially let us meet the Minions (figure that sentence out). That’s right, as the subtitle indicates, Gru shows up in MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU. That further complicates the villain question, because the whole point of the story is that Gru wants to be the ultimate villain.
So who is the villain in MINIONS 2? Is it Gru? Is it a Minion? Or is it one of the members of the Vicious 6, the group that Gru is desperate to join? And, after it's all said and done, even though this is a prequel, are Gru and are Minions really villains?
Minions: Evil or Just (Hilariously) Annoying?
Their story paints the Minions as henchmen (henchpeople? Henchthings?) to the most evil people in history, which should make them pretty evil, or at least villainous. But the Minions are more like adorable annoyances. Just look at the most recent MINIONS 2 trailer, above, which shows what happens when the yellow guys get into the pilot’s seat of a jumbo jet.
The Minions are probably closer to gremlins than anything else — and they lack the most murderous instincts of the little green guys in the classic ‘80s monster comedy GREMLINS. It’s just impossible to see the Minions as the true villains of any story, and they almost certainly are not the bad guys here.
Gru: Not Evil (Yet)
He wants to be bad so badly. While we’ve seen Gru get up to some world-class villainy in previous movies, he isn’t there yet. The round little guy seen in MINIONS 2 is still an aspiring villain. His heart’s in the wrong place (that's not a typo), but he hasn’t yet honed his evil skills.
MINIONS 2 will likely show us Gru's path to villainy as seen in the original DESPICABLE ME, but even then he's more of an overachieving annoyance than a true force of evil. For that we have to look to…
The Vicious 6: An Evil Crew
Gru is inspired by a group of six baddies called the Vicious 6. Well, when this movie really gets started they're more like the Vicious 5, as original leader Wild Knuckles has been ousted. In order to keep their name, the group needs a new sixth member, and that's where Gru hopefully fits in.
New group leader Belle Bottom, a disco diva, doesn't want to let him in. And the rest of the group — giant metal-handed muscleman Stronghold, the blonde roller-skating, Svengeance, dastardly Frencman Jean Clawed, and hard-hitting nun Nunchuck — are willing to follow suit.
The Vicious 6 (or 5) are certainly the villains in MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU. Now we just have to wonder why Wild Knuckles was kicked out of the group, and if he and Gru might band together in the end.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU opens on July 1.
All images courtesy of Universal Pictures.