By Guilia Socolof ’19

So many great movie titles came out this summer, from May to August. Among these are Monsters University, Despicable Me 2, Iron Man 3, Star Trek, Percy Jackson, and Man of Steel. I conducted a survey of the entire middle school, and the results were that Despicable Me 2, with Steve Carell as Gru, won by a long shot, with 40 people picking it as their favorite summer movie. In second was Iron Man 3 with Robert Downey Jr., with 27 votes. In third was Monsters University, with 15. Close behind were Star Trek, Percy Jackson, and Man of Steel. There were also several votes for other movies, like Grown-Ups 2, The Butler, and Now You See Me.

            Despicable Me 2 is the sequel to Despicable Me, which arrived in 2010. In this installment, Gru (Steve Carell) has long since turned away from his life as a villain, and is fully committed to raising 3 girls, Margo, (Miranda Cosgrove) Edith, (Dana Gaier) and Agnes, (Elsie Fisher). In addition, Gru’s longtime friend and head scientist, Dr. Nefario (Russel Brand) leaves in search of other business opportunities. Later, an anti-villain association contacts Gru, and his partner is a lively young girl, fresh off the desk, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig). Together, they have to solve the mystery of of a dangerous chemical.

            Personally, I thought this was a good movie, but not as entertaining as the first movie. When I asked Jack Waitz in 7^th grade what he thought, he said, “It was an O.K. movie. But I didn’t like it as much as the first one. It wasn’t realistic enough.” I have to agree with that, because I just felt like it didn’t make much sense. He goes from super villain in the first movie straight to jams and jellies in the second installment. Riya Shah, also in 7^th grade, said, “I liked Iron Man 3 a lot better than Despicable Me 2.” When she was asked if she liked the second-place movie better or not. “Despicable Me 2 just wasn’t original anymore.” I thought that was a good thought because it went straight from a brand-new idea to old and cliché. 6^th grader Jack Powers also said that Despicable Me 2 was not original. On Iron Man 3, he said, “It was a good movie, but the end was really confusing.”

            One thing that I thought was unusual that all of the teachers I had talked to said that they never took their kids to see Despicable Me 2. Ms. Sparacino said, “I actually wanted to go see that, but I never got around to going. Maybe they went to see it with their grandparents. We didn’t really see any movies this summer.” This brings me back to the 10 “None’s” I got on the survey. I guess some people weren’t able to see any movies this summer, be it for camp or other reasons.

            All in all, I think Despicable Me 2 was a decent movie, although a little more originality would have been better.