Thursday, June 14, 2018

Film Review - The Incredibles 2 (2018)

Incredibles 2 is the newest Pixar Animation and the long awaited sequel to the 2004 Incredibles written and directed by Brad Bird this time Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) looks after his 3 kids Violet, Dash and Jack Jack after Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) takes a new job with the head of Devtech who might be able to help them turn around the legal status of heroes so they can use their powers again but when a new villain called the Screenslayer appears the heroes have to suit up once again to stop him.

Incredibles 2 is a fun sequel and one I definitely enjoyed watching in the cinema first off the film hasn’t missed a beat visually since the first film in 2004 you wouldn’t know it was 14 years between the 2 films and the mix of retro deco style and computer animation was very appealing on a nicely sized cinema screen and the film also has some very nice action scenes and displays of super powers that is rarely seen in live action unless you have a large budget like Avengers Infinity War to properly display them.

What also works is the character dynamics and it is great to hear Ms Hunter and Mr Nelson back in those original roles same with Violet, Jack Jack and Dash as well as Mr Jackson as Frozone who thankfully gets a little bit more to do here than in the first film plus it is very nice to see Edna Mode come back and have a fun cameo.

All that said I wish the storytelling here was a little better not to say that it’s bad not at all but given the 14 year wait and the infinite number of possibilities that could have been done the overall story feels a little small in scale and like Finding Dory in 2016 it just feels a little bit samey the family is still the same heroes being illegal is still the same and the children are still the same and I wish there was a bit more change in terms of those situations and that their story had more at stake.

Then again when one of the biggest films of the year concerns the fate of the universe and an all powerful Mad Titan then there’s a distinct possibility that what comes next could well be a little underwhelming.

Last but not least there is a short before this movie called Bao about a Chinese woman and her son and it’s a very nice short about that particular bond and it was very nice to see Pixar doing another short again as I always look forward to seeing those in front of their films and I missed having one before Coco last year.

And so that was Incredibles 2 and it’s a nice sequel with nice visual design and character moments and a good villain but I wanted something a little more to justify the 14 year gap but alas we got what we got and it’s a nice movie and a fun sequel but that’s about it, 2 and a half out of 5.

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