Incredibles 2 Review

(I thought I had posted this review back when the movie came out, but it’s been in the draft folder this whole time. Fuck me.)

Let me just say something before starting this review: I’m honestly not a huge fan of Pixar movies. I’m never stunned by them after seeing them, and often times I think they’re overhyped. When movies are overhyped, they tend to lose their charm, and I end up not liking them as much.

If I had to pick my favorite Pixar movie, it’d probably be The Incredibles. It’s a fun superhero movie with witty family dialogue and a villain that I love. (I still quote Jason Lee’s lines to this day.)

I don’t necessarily think it needed a sequel, but since it did so well, you know Pixar wants that sweet, sweet cash. I’m not one of those people who think sequels make the stories better. Why make a second movie when you can just watch the first one again and again?

And yes, there was so much hype around the sequel of Incredibles 2. (How dare they take 14 years to make it?!) When I saw the sequel, there was even a little intro with Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, and Samuel Jackson thanking the audience for coming to see the movie.

So, was it worth the hype? Not exactly. Was it utter garbage? Not at all.

Incredibles 2 picks up right after the first movie, which is surprising since there was such a strange gap of time between the two movies. Luckily, for those of you who haven’t seen the first one or it’s been some time since you have, they summarize the plot of the first movie pretty quickly. They also mention the first movie in many ways, talking about the island and how superheroes are still illegal. It was nice to see that the two movies are clearly a pair.

With much better animation, Helen and Bob Parr (aka the Incredibles) are asked to meet with a new tech department, who are determined to make superheroes legal. The whole mantra of what makes someone a hero was very heavy in this movie compared to the first one.

However, the new tech department decides to send Helen out first as Elastigirl, so Bob is stuck at home taking care of the kids. Helen runs into a situation when she finds out that a new villain, the Screenslaver, is planning on doing something bad.

And that’s when the problems start to hit. It’s pretty obvious who the Screenslaver is as soon as he’s introduced (I felt like I was watching an episode of Riverdale.) I don’t know why Disney and Pixar are so obsessed with twist villain endings. Frozen and Zootopia are obvious examples of this, but the villain in this movie just felt lazy and rushed. The actor who voiced the man in charge of the tech department even said this movie was a rushed job.

And I didn’t quite understand the villain’s motives. In the first movie, Jason Lee’s character clearly had a motive for everything he was doing, and they introduced a younger version of the character very early on in the movie to give him a backstory. If you’re going to make a good superhero movie, you want the villain to have motives.

And don’t even get me started with the hypnosis art. That hurt my whole family’s eyes, and I didn’t understand why it had to be there. If you’ve seen the movie, hopefully you understand.

I did think the action sequences were some of the best parts of the movie, but most of them only involved Elastigirl. What was so nice about the first movie was that all four of the Incredibles got to fight in the battles on the island, not just the final battle. It was disappointing to see Violet and Dash pushed to the sideline.

There were also a bunch of new superheroes and all their powers were very interesting to watch, but it felt like they had no character. Voyd had a small storyline, but she was merely a fan of Elastigirl. It felt like a bad X-Men movie trying to push all these new heroes down our throats.

After reading critics opinions, I agree that the score is the best part of the movie. While loud at times, it went perfectly with the action scenes, and it had a very superhero-esque sound.

I did find the family dialogue and moments to be a bit mediocre, but it was probably because they were all shown in the trailers. I do like the idea of superheroes struggling with real family values and problems because we don’t see that in Marvel movies. However, like I said, it was like Violet and Dash were very overlooked. Dash was just left to be an annoying little brother time, and Violet’s whole storyline was about Tony. Because heaven forbid we have a teenage girl character who doesn’t have a storyline relating to love. Her whole storyline in the first movie was about her opening up and understanding her powers, and now she’s just stuck with boy trouble. Seriously?

Anyway, I don’t think this movie had the same charm and feel as the first movie, but I did appreciate the improvement in animation, and the comedic moments did hold up. I just don’t know what was going on with that whole raccoon scene with Jack-Jack. There had to be another way to show off his powers.

6/10 stars.