Incredibles 2: Review

This is a NON-Spoiler Review for Incredibles 2. I will get into some spoilers later in the review which I will give a warning for. I'd also like to warn you upfront that there are no post-credits scenes in this movie.

Plot Summary: "Everyone’s favorite family of superheroes is back! but this time Helen (Holly Hunter) is in the spotlight, leaving Bob (Craig T. Nelson) at home with Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Milner) to navigate the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life. It’s a tough transition for everyone, made tougher by the fact that the family is still unaware of baby Jack-Jack’s emerging superpowers. When a new villain hatches a brilliant and dangerous plot, the family and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) must find a way to work together again—which is easier said than done, even when they’re all Incredible."

I have so very heavy nostalgia for the first Incredibles movie. If you just wanna jump straight into the review then just skip to the next paragraph. When I was younger, there were like two superhero movies that I was allowed to watch. So Incredibles was one of my favorite movies. It's probably one of the first movies that I liked to imitate. I was like that video of the kid mimicking Stallone's every move in the training scene in Rocky. I remember imitating the fight scene between Mr. Incredible and the Omnibot in the volcano where they're surrounded by lava. And whenever the robot sticks it's arms out and basically turns them both into two giant propellers, I used to take both arms of my jacket and mimic that. So there's a weird story about me for you. Anway, because I was quite young, I've always assumed that the ending of the first movie with The Underminer was confirmation of a second movie. So I've been expecting this movie for a LONG time. And I still kinda wish that my younger self could have had this movie and that I didn't have to wait until now for it. Because I love it now, but I think this would have meant the world to me back then. But Pixar, PLEASE don't make us wait until 2032 for Incredibles 3. Anyway, enough about nostalgia.

We finally got to see The Incredibles on screen again after such a long wait. This is one of the most fun movies I've seen from Pixar in a while. It's a good old fun and fast-paced animated movie with great comedy. This movie is just complete fun. Jack-Jack stole this entire movie. I think I enjoyed Mr. Incredible's adventures in babysitting probably more than any of the action (Not there's anything to complain about there). I could have watched an entire movie about homelife with superpowers. It's just comedy gold. And it's not just meaningless comedy. Watching Bob have to navigate being a father without Helen to be there, and dealing with the jealousy of that, was super interesting for a character (more on this in the spoiler section). As for superhero action, I had a ton of fun with it. I saw a double feature, and I got chills watching action scenes from both movies. And Michael Giacchino's score has a lot to do with that. To me, The Incredibles has always been a mix of two things - one is if they ever made a James Bond superhero movie, this is what it would look like. It's super sleek and dark and all the characters feel exactly in line with that style. And the other thing is a very old-fashioned style superhero story. There's a character named Mr. Incredible and he battles a villain named Bomb Voyage. That's almost in line with a character like The Condiment King. But I think the first movie definitely leaning more on the James Bond side. And I think this movie is leaning more towards the classic comic book-ish style which I'll talk about more later.

As for flaws, I thought some of the scenes could have definitely been written better. Most of the scenes that bothered me involved the Deavor siblings. I thought Bob Odenkirk's character Winston Deavor was really just there to deliver a ton of exposition and a couple of rough jokes. And his character felt a lot more light-hearted and colorful than any of the characters of the first movie. I also feel this way about the new superhero characters that were introduced. They just felt more cartoon-ish and comical. I think that if this movie had been made in the early days of Pixar, these characters would have been a lot darker and mysterious. Which I think that can be said for the whole movie. There's a freaking attempted suicide in the first movie. Pixar doesn't really make movies like the first Incredibles anymore. A lot of Pixar's sequels lately have been a lot more fast-paced and more episodic rather than the more carefully structured great journeys of their best movies. Even a movie like Inside Out (which I loved) feels a lot faster paced and it has a very light-hearted tone and it's pumped with comedy. Which I'm not complaining, I'm not saying that I don't like fun. But it feels like this movie shows how Pixar has changed over the years. The first movie is a lot slower paced. And the second movie has very little breathing room. And it's SO much fun. I will take a fast-paced episodic adventure with the Incredibles a lot sooner than I will with something like Finding Dory.

Now let me talk about what I think is the biggest flaw. This movie fits right into just about every superhero movie because it's got what I think is a boring villain. Look, everything that Brad Bird has directed since Ratatouille has had something super dark that he's been speaking on. And Tomorrowland and now Incredibles 2 have both been super preachy to me. Now I am not against a bit of preachiness in film. Sometimes I think it works and it's needed. Two examples of movies that I think were preachy but they worked from this year were Black Panther and Ready Player One. And with Incredibles 2, I think Brad Bird has a very un-subtle message about how much we look at screens. Which this now begins my SPOILER HEAVY SECTION. If I haven't already convinced you, go see this movie and then you can come back and read the rest.

SPOILER SECTION:

It's not a very good sign whenever you hear someone in the audience giggle when they first hear the name of the villain. As soon as we saw the text "Screenslaver" I and a couple of people behind me laughed. But I'm not totally against the name, because I think it feels like a very old-fashioned style villain. It sounds like the name of a character that would be in a super old Superman comic. And in the beginning, I kinda enjoyed it. The character felt a bit like a Batman villain like The Riddler to me. And I thought that fight scene with Elastigirl in the strobe light room was some of the coolest animation work I've ever seen. But then it just turns out to be a twist that I knew was coming. I knew that one of the new characters were gonna turn out to be a villain so much that I really didn't even bother to figure out who it would be. I just knew it would be boring and it was. And it ended up being a very mustache twirling type of boring villain with preachiness that I don't think was well executed.

SPOILER SECTION:

Let's go back to the two examples I gave. Ready Player One's message I think was handled perfectly. And it's almost the same as this movie - pay attention to reality. But the difference between the two is that Ready Player One is completely optimistic. It's like a sweet grandpa sitting next to you and giving you some great wisdom while smiling the whole time. And in the Incredibles case, not only is the message feel like it's coming from someone frustrated and furious and it's being screamed at you, it's not even from a parent. It's from some creepy dude on the street. The villain of the story is the one that Brad Bird decides to speak through. But this is what brings me to an example like Black Panther. Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger is the one that Ryan Coogler speaks his message through. But the difference between Black Panther and Incredibles 2 is that one has a changed hero by the end. Kilmonger ends up getting his point across to the hero and ultimately changes the way T'Challa looks at the world and thus brilliantly communicating it to the audience. But in the case of Incredibles 2, the closest we get to that is one line from Elastigirl that goes something like "At least I have core beliefs." So if Brad Bird wants to tell everyone in the world to stop being screen slaves, then why he is he speaking through the villain? It's the one character that kids are trained not to listen to. And if the message is that we should trust the system and that the villain ultimately is wrong, then this message isn't clear at all. And we see this debate between Bob and Helen at the dinner table at the motel. And we don't see either of them come around. I just find whatever Brad Bird is trying to say very clunky and confusing. But I don't think that will sour of the rest of the audience's experience. Because the rest of it is an amazingly fun ride with The Incredibles.

SPOILER SECTION:

Some other things I enjoyed - The adventures in parent section is my favorite part. And I loved watching Mr. Incredible having to learn how to be a superhero at being a father. Edna says this in the trailer "Done properly, parenting is a heroic act." And the moment when Bob gets up in the morning to teach Dash his math, this is the moment when Bob succeeds at being a super dad. I love how Giacchino's score reflects this. It's the same super theme we've heard over and over in both movies, but it's much softer and calm. It's one of my favorite scenes of the movie. Another thing that I really enjoyed was the character of Voyd. I know we've seen superheroes with the powers of portals many times, but I never get tired of it. And I think what Brad Bird has always known how to do with both movies is how to combine characters superpowers in interesting ways. Like that scene with Violet making a forcefield and Dash makes it move super fast and it makes an invincible ball of destruction. Voyd added some really interesting new dynamics. Like the fight scene between her and Violet. Or when she makes portals into that plane with Elastigirl. It's just great fun superhero action. And I LOVE how the movie ends the way the first one ends, the Incredibles are off on more adventures. My grade for Incredibles 2 is an A-