Despicable Me 3 movie review****

The set-pieces continue to be inventive, the Minions are still endlessly watchable but have little to do, and while each of their sub-plots are enjoyable on their own, a wacky quality gets lost in the separation. The characters work better as a team than as a bunch of disparate elements. Four films down, counting theMinions film, also tempers the newness of the material.

On the surface, the “Despicable Me” cartoons appear to be sendups of the James Bond franchise, but beneath that slick, spoofy exterior, they’re really marshmallow-centered affirmations of good old-fashioned family values. In the original, reformed super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) agrees to reprioritize his life around his three newly adopted daughters. Then, in the sequel, Gru met soul mate Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) and got hitched. And now, in what might have been titled “Predictable Me 3,” Gru discovers his long-lost twin brother, Dru, giving the superficially surly character even more reasons for group hugs.