Date: 2018
Director: Brad Bird
Actors/ Characters: Craig T. Nelson/ Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter/ Helen Parr / Elastigirl, Sarah Vowell/ Violet Parr, Huck Milner/ Dash Parr, Catherine Keener/ Evelyn Deavor, Eli Fucile/ Jack-Jack Parr, Bob Odenkirk/ Winston Deavor, Samuel L. Jackson/ Lucius Best / Frozone
Summary: Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) is left to care for the kids while Helen (Elastigirl) is out saving the world.
Review
After fourteen long years of waiting Incredibles Two finally arrived on our cinema screens much to the delight of children and adults alike. Before I start this review I do want to clarify that I like this film no matter how much negativity might be in the review to come, I enjoyed watching this and did have a fun experience in the cinema. When sequels of this calibre are announced I make it good practise to just immediately lower my expectations and brace myself for the follow up film to be inferior to the original so with that in mind this film didn't disappojte it just wasn't as good as the first.
First things first, let's discuss the film's premise itself. The filmmakers raved on and on about how they waited so long to make a sequel because they wanted to make a film completely original and touch on topics and narratives not shown in film before, my question to this is: have none of you seen Cheaper By The Dozen? Released in 2003, a year before the first Incredibles, Cheaper By The Dozen is a film about a father of twelve who has to stay home with the kids and maintain the household whilst his wife goes on a book tour. Sound familiar? That's because it's pretty much the exact same plot as Incredibles Two. So I ask Pixar what they think is so original about their story?
One of the most infuriating aspects of the plot of this film for me was the fact that the natural progression of the story seemed to take two steps back. We spent the first Incredibles film getting to a point where the whole family came together as a unit only for the sequel to push the narrative back a few steps and split up the family yet again. The film is predominantly an Elstagirl film where the first was Mr Incredible film I can understand that focussing the second film around Elstagirl makes sense but the fan part of me just wishes that the film had kept the family as a team the whole way through instead of making the lack of connection a hurdle to overcome within the narrative. Honestly the best sequences in both films for me are the action sequences in which we see the 'incredibles' rather than a solo hero.
The film definitely nailed the same comedic value that was present in the first one. There is quite a lot of situational comedy and relatable scenes in Incredibles because of the personalities of our protagonists. I have to say one of the funniest elements of this film for me was Jack Jack's scenes especially his time with Edna. Obviously we didn't see much of Jack Jack in the first film so it was really nice to see development in his character.
I want to talk about the 'feminist' message in the film. This is another aspect of the film that I think is overhyped. Elstagirl's struggle is not a new concept in storytelling, this is a story that been told before, I'm not saying it isn't an important tale to tell I'm just saying it's not unique unlike the filmmakers are telling people. The representation of women in this film is positive it depicts them as able bodied, intelligent and independent so I have no issues with the illustration of women but I wouldn't hail it as one of the most feminist children's film out there.
I'm going to end this review on a positive and talk about how I really enjoyed the use and subversion of superhero movie tropes in this film. As a fan of superhero movies and film analyst I picked up on quite a few spins on superhero film conventions and codes. For instance, the superhero theme songs that Winston mentions with his meeting with the supers was a clever spin on Spiderman's fan song from Spiderman as well as general theme songs for superhero shows and films. New Urbem the city Elstagirl visits to fight crime was a homage to cities like Gotham or Metropolis from Batman and Superman. The band of misfit, outcast supers that Evelyn and Winston find could also be a nod to the X-Men. I found it quite fun and entertaining to spot little nods and homages to other superhero texts within the film and this was one of my favourite elements of the film.
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