Coming 14 years after the original, “Incredibles 2” enters into a world saturated with iron men and American captains. When the original was released, super hero films were occasional and not very good. The world has changed a lot since then, most evident by the fact that this sequel releases just a few months after “Infinity War,” a giant space opera of a super hero film. Do the Parr’s and their world still work well in this new day and age?
Gorgeously animated, “Incredibles 2” does in fact work quite well. Everything about this retro yet futuristic world pops with color and life. The advancements made in the last 14 years of animation haven’t changed designs or characters, instead making them even more beautiful than they’ve ever been.
Color in particular is an impressive standout detail. A chase scene halfway through the film is almost entirely orange and red, the Parr’s new house is a lush gorgeous sight to behold, and the city skylines put on display are frame worthy.
None of it gets in the way of the characters, however. Everyone is still just as super as ever, and the new focus on Elastigirl is pulled off excellently. That plot helps to showcase the film’s best aspects, its details.
Instead of saddling her with the lead 'just because', writer/director Brad Bird (“The Iron Giant,” “Ratatouille”) comes up with a legitimate and logical reason for her to take center stage. It shows how much care has gone into this world and it makes the film so much better for it. This is a double-edged sword though, as the care and attention put into the world seems to have taken away from the reasoning behind this tale.
While Bob and the kids take a definite backseat to Helen’s story, their interactions are fine enough and are entertaining. However, the entire plot feels a bit scummy given that it all revolves around trusting and relying on each other… which is the same exact message the previous film taught these characters. If they’d actually learned it then, this film’s events would’ve have played out like they did. It’s as if Bird gave the Parr’s a case of Deja-Vu for the sake of a sequel.
Michael Giacchino’s (“Up,” “Coco”) score pulse through some of the most fluidly animated and most fun action scenes of the year, and it speaks to the movie’s strong sense of fun and entertainment. Compared to the first film, which brought up heavy ideas of power, right and wrong, and the value of the everyday person, this sequel is a lot less intense and far more family friendly. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s so damn entertaining anyway.
It almost feels as though Bird wanted to get the serious stuff out of the way first, so he could let loose and bring out the absurdities in his world with the sequel. Because let it be known, the film is supremely weird. But it revels in it in the best ways possible, integrating its weirdness into the plot in clever ways.
However, the film's biggest flaw is in its villain. It's is extremely predictable, especially when compared to the first film’s. To clarify, the villain itself is well thought out, well performed and well written. But, it's also obvious who it is by the time it's revealed. To Bird’s credit, he does deliver a few twists that help to hoodwink the audience, but the result isn’t nearly as jaw dropping as it could have been.
“Incredibles 2” is an odd kind of movie wherein it just feels hollower, like a cash-grab despite many fantastic elements. The dialogue and characters are great but the overall plot and the characterizations feel thin. Its constructed well and still ahead of many other typical Hollywood animated films in recent years, but you can't help but feel that this is a film simply going through the motions. Bob, for example, goes from being a strong and intelligent father who learns to be more present by the end of the first movie, to a bumbling fool who borders on Homer Simpson levels of fatherly incompetence.
While extremely entertaining and filled with tons of great dialogue and animation, “Incredible 2” feels like it betrays the first film a bit. The plot only really makes sense if the characters forget what happened in the first film, and given how amazing that first villain was, Screenslaver is a bit bland. It’s still very entertaining, but not quite super. 3.5/5