Minions: The Rise of Gru
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 1, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
19
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ColliderRebecca LandmanJun 29, 2022
The fast-paced, vaudevillian-style humor keeps us laughing despite the fact that we never really have any clue what any of the Minions themselves are saying. This movie affords itself more surface-level moments with lesser-developed villains because of the relationships we're immediately invested in between Gru and his Minions. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 28, 2022
It all swirls together in a riot of color, action, deadpan gags and musical and martial arts mayhem, a kids’ movie that rushes by you so fast you won’t want to take a concession stand break. Read full review
83
Original-CinJohn KirkJun 28, 2022
It’s the antic humour set against the retro décor that acts as a common meeting ground for youth and adults to enjoy Minions: The Rise of Gru together. It’s funny on both age levels. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicAlexis PotterJun 29, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru is the perfect movie if you’ve been needing a moment to just laugh, no matter what age you are. Yes, it is an animated film that will appeal to kids for sure, but it's written with adults in mind, too. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 24, 2022
The animation is technically wondrous – the colour and detail amazes, while the Minions themselves have never looked more bouncily robust – but it’s always in service of the overriding slapstick agenda. Even the flat, side-on compositions – less than ideal for showing off graphical prowess – feel like knowing evocations of the deadpan staging of vintage cartoons. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 5, 2022
Of the five movies in the Despicable Me/Minions cycle, The Rise of Gru is the second-best, following the debut installment. The series has long since given up finding new avenues to explore (the way the first one and, to a degree, the second one, did), relying instead of regurgitating ideas and comedic bits. It’s almost surprising, therefore, how effectively it works. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 1, 2022
In a movie that only nominally needs to make sense, those little mango-colored agents of chaos — with their thumb-shaped bodies, jaunty overalls, and inscrutable dialect ("Who are these tiny tater tots and where did they get so much denim?" Gru marvels in his own esoteric accent) — are often the best thing on screen, a loopy confluence of Buster Keaton and Evel Knievel. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 1, 2022
Even if you can’t stand the Minions (who are once again voiced in “Minionese” by Pierre Coffin), you might find this one tolerable. Especially if you’re old enough to get the 1976 jokes yet feel young enough to find bemusement in all the goofy slapstick. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJun 30, 2022
While a tad too light, as these films often are, nobody is making animated characters as funny or likable (or marketable) as the Minions. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJun 29, 2022
Kids will love all the silliness, but oddly the greatest resonance of the Wayback Machine plot will be felt by the kids’ grandparents (if any find themselves in attendance) who were around in those bygone days. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTodd GilchristJun 27, 2022
Ultimately, The Rise Of Gru exerts a negligible impact on the Minions’ canonical journey. If nothing else, the film serves as a reminder of the characters’ cartoonish charms, both literally and thematically, and their transcendent appeal. Read full review
71
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 30, 2022
The Rise of Gru is the weakest entry by far. But with just enough semi-inspired moments of weirdness to skate by. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJun 29, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru gives fans more of what they’ve come to expect, mainly Gru acting evilly, the Minions acting stupidly, and enough clever gags that will fly over its target audiences’ heads but keep their adult chaperones from dozing off. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 13, 2022
Six months into 2022, it’s the funniest film Hollywood has produced thus far. Audiences know what to expect, and Illumination delivers, offering another feel-good dose of bad behavior. Read full review
69
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonJul 5, 2022
While a lot of this stuff is undeniably enjoyable, it also resembles a frenzied fever dream. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfJun 29, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru might not be sophisticated storytelling, but not all animated films have to be. Sometimes they can just be about joy. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeSerena PuangJun 29, 2022
The movie is fun: The music is unironically good...But with this many characters, the audience doesn’t spend enough time with any of them to allow for the emotional payoff the other movies in the franchise offer. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleJun 29, 2022
For a not small segment of the audience for Minions: Rise of Gru, only one thing really needs to be said. The Minions are in it. That’s enough. Read full review
63
Washington PostThomas FloydJun 28, 2022
Although the humor doesn’t wear out its welcome, the whiz-bang action sequences do, especially when the unnecessarily bombastic, San Francisco-set finale arrives. Visually, the kinetic movie is occasionally inventive but disappointingly content to paint by numbers. Read full review
61
The AtlanticShirley LiJul 27, 2022
To be clear, the Minions’s latest triumph is not unearned in artistic terms. The Rise of Gru’s story is instantly forgettable, but the film looks great, moves briskly, and boasts the vocal stylings of a cast that sounds like they’re having the time of their life. Read full review
60
ABC NewsPeter TraversJul 1, 2022
This Minions prequel would have to go some to make it as flimsy, but Steve Carell is pricelessly funny doing the voice of a pre-teen wannabe villain wrangling an army of goggle-wearing little buggers and you could do worse in a search for animated family fun Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJul 1, 2022
Short on plot, long on silliness, the return of the little yellow troublemakers is a fun but fleeting helium high. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 1, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru is hardly the best of the Despicable Me movies or spinoffs...But the ridiculousness quotient of The Rise of Gru—directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val—is still high enough to spark at least mild rejuvenation. And whether you have one eye or two, six hairs sprouting from your pate or none at all, you could probably use a little of that right now. Read full review
60
Screen RantRachel LaBonteJul 1, 2022
While Minions: The Rise of Gru still can't entirely justify itself, it does provide a far more heartfelt and fun outing than its predecessor. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJun 30, 2022
There’s nothing all that special about The Rise of Gru, but it runs like a well-oiled machine. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsJun 22, 2022
Like the Minions, this instalment is barely distinguishable from any of the others, but it’s easy to be won over by its nutty joy and enthusiasm. Read full review
60
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorJun 14, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru will not usher in a new era of animation, nor change the way we treat prequels. What it will do is entertain kids with more Minions shenanigans, a fair number of fart jokes, and references to other characters in the franchise. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredTricia GilbrideJul 14, 2022
Perhaps it’s a relief that the film does not, as is a trope in recent films, end in Gru’s temporary redemption, but at least that would be a conclusion of some sort. Instead, we’re left with entertaining but toothless villain-lair-building. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 1, 2022
For all its efforts at wild humor, The Rise of Gru never quite builds up a comic head of steam. It’s filled with laugh lines, but they feel like placeholders — a lot of middling bits about the time period plus a tired assortment of anachronisms. Read full review
50
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJul 1, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru is more Minion compilation than Gru prequel. It wastes its fun ideas and comedic setups in favor of disconnected slapstick gags, which may delight the diaper-wearing crowd, but will end up a chore to anyone forced to comprehend its inert dramatic scenes and ’70s pop culture references. Read full review
50
PolygonJosh SpiegelJun 30, 2022
This is neither a uniquely marvelous film nor a teeth-gnashing pain. It’s OK in the moment, and it evaporates as soon as the end credits roll. Read full review
50
IndieWireKate ErblandJun 30, 2022
It’s colorful and madcap and zany, and while that might not make it suitable for all audiences, it will delight the very one it is made for. That’s fine for now, but if this franchise wants to survive, the next entry will have to take on a much tougher mission: stay silly, but get a whole lot smarter. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJun 30, 2022
Amiable and colorful as it is, the movie is also spectacularly inconsequential. Read full review
45
TheWrapCarlos AguilarJun 30, 2022
As lackluster as this scattered-brained saga is, the animation team of “The Rise of Gru” does excel at constantly reminding us that we are in the 70s via its production design. Read full review
45
CNNBrian LowryJun 30, 2022
"Minions” certainly has to be evaluated in the modest context of what it’s trying to achieve – like fueling fast-food giveaways and toy sales – but even compared to the earlier movies in the franchise, this one feels particularly limited in its scope and ambitions. Read full review
42
The PlaylistJason BaileyJun 29, 2022
This notion, of the supervillain antihero and the gibberish-spouting minions who serve him, remains an awfully thin premise to hang a movie on – much less five of them. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 1, 2022
None of these skits congeals into anything like a plot. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJun 29, 2022
These references, and the relentless assault of ‘70s needle drops, are fun, to a point, but the movie itself is 87 minutes of pure chaos, a hallucinatory, cacophonous fever dream of nonsensical subplots and Minion gibberish. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 23, 2022
Although the character of Gru is mildly funny, the minions are unfunny without him and have never convincingly attained spin-off hero status. This is another of those intellectual property concepts whose trademarked quirky voices and characters should be laid to rest. Read full review
30
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJun 29, 2022
It’s by no means horrendous or offensive, but it’s just a chronic bore, another film that will likely join the Billion Dollar Box Office club, but not a single person will be able to tell you how and why it managed to get through the front doors. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanJun 30, 2022
At 88 minutes, Minions: The Rise of Gru struggles to find enough story to encompass its run time, ending up feeling substantially longer as a result. Read full review
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