I found it very entertaining, but as always I need to see a movie more than once to distill more impressions. It doesn’t match the original, but Incredibles 1 was clearly the one of the best animated films made, so I wouldn’t expect it to. The flip of Mr Incredible was done well, and subverted expectations nicely. The action scenes were fun and creative (although sometimes interminable, like at the end, but still on that boat there was fun to be had, “uncrush?!?”, and the teleport vortex girl trying to help and figuring stuff out). I figured out the villain waay before the reveal, which was disappointing, and the reveal was kinda meh. But I still enjoyed it immensely. Jak Jak had lots of fun scenes, though I really didn’t need Edna there when we had so many other characters.
“Bao” was horrifying. Serious, WTH? Mom (and I thought Bao was a man!) eats her kid in a kids-movie short? Jeesus, what were they thinking!? Yes, apparently it was an allegory or metaphor or something, but I didn’t get it at all, and I’d not expect younger kids to get it at ALL. Holy mother of pancakes.
Saw it, loved it, thought it was better than the original. But what I liked best was that it actually was a story, unlike most blockbusters these days. It has a plot that makes sense and solid, character-driven dynamics throughout. It is not crammed with “easter eggs”, set-ups for future movies, and callbacks to past ones.
On top of that, the humor is actually funny, the action sequences are slick, the portrait of the main family is truly affectionate. As others have said, I liked the way that they steered around the “clueless dad” stereotype and depicted Mr. Incredible as genuinely caring and concerned. Also, the fact that Elastigirl was torn between embracing her new role and missing out on seeing the children grow up.
Finally got around to seeing it. It was good fun, but definitely not as good as the original. The plot felt a bit overstuffed with characters/arcs to me, and a lot of them never went anywhere. I think they threw a lot in that would’ve ended up on the cutting room floor had it gotten the typical Pixar care, but I know they faced time constraints when they switched the release date with Toy Story 4 and I think it showed. There’s no strong theme/message and the villain was under-developed and overly predictable. Villains like this one work best when they make you say “maybe they have a point” but this one’s motivation was just dumb and unrelatable. Far cry from Syndrome in the first one.
Lots of fun action scenes though, and Jack Jack’s antics are the star attraction.
I liked the movie a lot. But one thing I found strange was that all three of the big set piece action sequences were very similar. With the Underminer’s runaway digging machine, the magnetic train and the yacht, it all amounted to “let’s stop this big thing speeding toward a collision”. I kept expecting there to be something from the first sequence for the characters to remember in order to resolve the last one, but the characters didn’t seem to see any parallelism there.
I thought it made good sense. “Having superheroes around means we depend on them, and don’t take responsibility for ourselves” makes perfect sense. She took it way too far of course, but that’s what supervillains do. But it holds up better than, say, Thanos’s motivation in Infinity Wars, imho.
While she says that, it felt disconnected from everything else. It doesn’t make sense temporally, for one thing… superheroes have been illegal for years (at least a decade and a half, assuming Violet was conceived post-wedding) and only just re-appeared. So it’s hard to really buy that there’s any real nugget of philosophy here, it just seems like she hates superheroes because she blames them for her parents’ deaths. (Which, depending on the timeline, happened partly because the superheroes were illegal…) It’s also just not tightly tied thematically with the rest of the story, like Syndrome’s “if everyone is super, no one will be” played off the struggles of the family to hide and fit in in the first one. There’s nothing in this movie showing anyone being weaker because they’re relying on superheroes.
As for the Thanos comparison, I disagree. Thanos struck me as a well-developed villain who really believes he’s doing the right (if unpopular) thing, Evelyn just comes across as someone who can’t let her parents’ death go and is throwing a hissy fit. Put it this way: if the equivalent villain goal was destroying all technology, Thanos’ motivation is preventing the AI takeover of humanity, Evelyn’s motivation would be because her parents got run over by a drunk driver in an electric car.
The wife and I watched it today. Liked it okay. But I think Holly Hunter is no longer a good voice for the mother. Sounds too much like an Old Granny voice. I thought the daughter too had an old-lady voice.
It’s been a while since I saw the first one, but I couldn’t stop thinking all the way through - how do they not know Jack-jack has powers? Shouldn’t they at least have cottoned on to something from the babysitters increasingly panicked voicemails? I suppose his fight with Syndrome was all out of sight from the rest of the family but I had been sure they’d seen something along the way.
Also… Violet, show your date some respect and don’t ditch him at the movie theatre to go have fun with your folks. “Back for the start of the movie…”? Yeah suuuuure
Final nitpick - unfenced swimming pool in the middle of a house you’re going to live in with a 1 year old? Noooooooooo!
(That said, I actually really liked it. Plenty of fun dialog, loved the car, and Edna’s creative solutions to the Jack-jack problem. And the way they all play pass the baby when they’re trying to get in on the action)
Also - yeah, Dicker, Tommy Lee Jones, for sure. But did anyone else think Evelyn was a dead ringer for Helena Bonham Carter?
The babysitter was pretty vague - and panicked messages from a young inexperienced babysitter who is left alone with a baby for a lot longer than originally planned are normal.
Now Dicker must have known about Jack-Jack’s powers - he interrogated the babysitter, after all. I guess he didn’t think to tell the Parrs (because he thought they already knew?).
Kari was gone by the time they got home and had her memory wiped by Dicker so couldn’t have filled them in later, even if they’d seen her since. When Jack-Jack struggled with Syndrome he was too far away for the family to see what he was doing, and he reverted to normal just before Helen caught him. The only living person to know about Jack-Jack’s powers was Dicker and yeah, he’d likely assume the family already knew since both the other kids are supers.
Didn’t Helen see Jack-Jack demonstrate powers at the end of Incredibles I?
That having been said, I loved it loved it loved it. I like it as much as the first one, and I liked the first one a lot. Bob working his way into a supporting role was not heavy-handed or demeaning. And yes, Violet coming out invisible, getting ice cream, and going back to her room was priceless. I thought the action sequences were well-timed, and interspersed with character development/interplay.
But the “Bao” short was not suitable for kids. I get the idea, but eating your son? Ick.
I thought it was straightforward, extremely predictable, wildly poorly paced, and not as nearly as good as the first one. Did they telegraph the baddie so much so that small children could feel clever by figuring it out first?
I mean, it was watchable, I don’t feel like I wasted my time, but I left feeling thoroughly unimpressed. Definitely a letdown after a 14 year hiatus.
Oh, and I found Bao to be quite off-putting. Does Disney not do focus groups anymore? I think they should have in this case.
I don’t think so. Jack Jack and Syndrome were way far up and she was screaming to Bob, “What’s happening?” So I think she knew something was going on but not what.
I found Dash’s voice to be very much the same, even though they recast from the first movie to the second (14 years, Pixar!!!)
Bao quite a Why TF are they playing this before a kid’s movie?
Now, the footrace was a couple of months after Syndrome’s plane. Were they living in a motel the whole time? There’s also seems to be a discrepancy with technology…50 style cars, but sleek hypnotic goggles, electric bikes, and yachts. Ah well.
Loved Auntie Edna. I was wondering why the kids didn’t flee to her house after Frozone got goggled, since it’s a fortress, but I can understand them wanting to get to their parents.
Plus, How to Train Your Dragon 3 comes out in the spring!!
It was really good, really beautifully drawn. However, it was too long and dragged in the middle.
Bao was weird but emotionally very resonant. Her being so protective of the dumpling who was so small and vulnerable was very emotionally true to what being a parent feels like. I totally understood why she didn’t want him to play with the other kids or leave with the girl.
I liked it but not as much as the first one. Primarily, the villain was boring with a rehashed plot of seeking revenge on superheroes without being nearly as fun as Syndrome in the last one.
Elastigirl’s fight with Screenslaver was amazing but several of the other action sequences were mediocre including the much awaited confrontation with the Underminer. I think the first film had more varied and ingenious action scenes like Dash’s run.
I think Jack-Jack was overused, his fight with the racoon was great but I think he should have been kept out of the final battle.
I liked the urban landscapes but overall the island in the first one was a better setting and quite remarkable for 2004.
It was fun, but not as much fun for me as the original. Probably because (as someone already mentioned), the original was full of surprises, but this continues on with the same characters.
Here’s my nitpick. I didn’t check every usage of Voyd’s powers, but from what I remembered, her powers were the same as a Portal Gun from the game Portal, except she doesn’t need a wall to put the portal in. So, she can connect two areas of space with a portal and anything that goes in one portal comes out the other side. However, anyone who has played the game will know (with some frustration) that you can’t just put a hole in the wall like she did for Elastigirl towards the end. Putting a portal into a wall just lets you go in there and come out wherever the other portal is, not go through the wall.
How would that even work? The portal is just a hole in the wall until she puts a portal somewhere else? Then, it’s no longer a hole in the wall, but a gateway to the other portal?
Obviously, I’m geeking out, but am I way off base here? I loved the way she used her portal powers to bounce things around and make people punch themselves – cool idea for a more action-packed version of Portal.