Despicable Me (B)

The creative imagery of this animated, sci-fi flick mostly makes up for the fact that a good chunk of the film is mildly annoying.
With an actually funny funny-voice, Steve Carrel is Gru, a middle-aged super-villain with a kindly mad scientist (Russel Brand) and an army of two feet tall, sausage-shaped minions. Gru has been struggling getting loans from the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) to fund his ultimate sinister plot--steeling the moon (the filmmakers, like Gru, fail to realize that if the moon actually vanished millions would die from the tsunamis and climate change to follow). To pull off his plan, he sets out to steel a shrink ray--only to see it fall into the hands of rival super-villain Vector (Jason Segal as nerd half Gru's age). No characters here have actual super-powers, but Gru thinks with his vast arsenal of gadgets (most of which seem to have actually been invented by his scientist, Dr. Nefario) he can actually get it back. He is sorely disappointed when his heists are blocked by saw blades, lasers, rockets, giant fly-swatters, mechanical fists, catapults, and a great white shark. If only he could get a way in. Wait, what is this? Three orphan girls selling cookies--Vector is letting them into his mansion. All he needs to do is adopt them for a week and have them carry in his cookie-robots, who will promptly let him in, so he can take the shrink ray, so he can shrink the moon, so he can steel the moon, so he will be admired and feared throughout the world, so he can prove his mother was wrong when she mocked his gifts. Seems kind of complex, but Gru is a big picture guy. Except for the fact that he doesn't realize that steeling the moon will kill a lot of people. I guess to enjoy the movie you have to get over that one.
Sadly, the moon thing isn't the only thing you have to ignore in the movie. There is ageism (the guy is so old, he thought the dart gun was a fart gun hahahahahahahahaha), there is not too much in the way of plot, and the kids are really annoying. Really annoying (then again, if you watched ICarly you'd know Miranda Cosgrove, who plays the eldest child, specializes in obnoxious). I know that in real life kids who lived in an abusive foster home all their life would be pretty irritating--but that doesn't mean if you give them high pitched voices it makes them sound cute!
Understand, though, the film isn't terrible. The movie is genuinely charming at times (as Gru discovers he actually likes the little kids), the minions are entertaining, Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes, Inception)'s very good score, Kristen Wiig plays the foster care headmaster like Dolores Umbridge, and the movie itself can be quite funny (as he leaves the girls' room after tucking them in for the night Gru mentions "Don't let zee bed bugs bite...And there are thousands of them...oh right, and I think there iz something in the closet"). Best of all though is the visuals--the attention to detail, the ingenuity in designing cool weapons, and the playful action sequences. In 3-D, it really is a blast--they are using the technology as much as possible in the most-obvious-yet-still fun ways. The flip-side of this, though, is that people watching in 2-D will be missing stuff--things other recent animated movies like Shrek Forever After and Toy Story 3 have taken pains to avoid.
Leaving the movie, I was humored--though not truly impressed. My brother, on the other hand, seemed to have taken away some of the little brats' bad behavior--so it might not be the perfect family film.
A fun movie, especially for the 3-D crowd. Not something great mind you--in some ways something bad--but still fun.