Review: Incredibles 2

On paper, Incredibles 2 has a lot going for it in terms of having the ability to satisfy a large group of diverse movie goers. In fact, it might have more of that stuff than you’ll find in just about any animated film out there. That’s one reason why you should expect it to be a huge success at the box office during its run in theaters. However, once you unpack it all and think about it a little, you may agree with me in thinking that they could have done some things differently.

At this point in time, heroes having been banned have forced superheroes to find other gigs. This hasn’t proven to be beneficial for many of them, but things can change with this latest opportunity that sees Helen (Holly Hunter) being recruited to lead the campaign to get their rights back. Pretty much everyone wants her to succeed, but the new villain that emerges during this daring attempt may cause even her most starch supporters to question if the goals behind this mission will be accomplished.

We don’t get a ton of films like this whether they’re animated or not, so I was pretty much hoping for a film focused on the family joining together and fighting crime as a single unit. That would have been cool to see how that all unfolded since the dynamics between these characters work so well, but we don’t get much of that. Instead, audiences are offered a film that puts almost all of its focus on Helen during the core story and many of the scenes involving crime fighting.

What’s here isn’t bad or anything, but it strips down much of the potential entertainment we could have had to make something a bit more streamline. This was a little bit of a disappointment for me since I saw more potential handling it the other way. With all of their personalities and powers being different, seeing them blend in together constantly makes everything more colorful and interesting in my mind.

From the perspective of a filmmaker, I guess it could make things more difficult, since you would need to keep every character busy somehow. That makes things more complicated if you’re trying to come up with a film that works. In that case, I can understand why approaching Incredibles 2 the way they did looked more appealing. The only issue that comes from that is that it’s a solo superhero movie rather than a legitimate sequel to Incredibles.

And because almost all of the superhero stuff is left to one character, this obviously takes away from some of what the rest of the heroes get to do. Brad Bird essentially has them sitting on the sidelines through the vast majority of the movie. During this time, we go to them dealing dilemmas that can be considered mundane in some situations. Some of these manage to be fun, but most of it is just there to keep them occupied because these guys had to be included in the movie.

In spite of my complaints about this specific thing, Incredibles 2 is still a good movie overall. There’s a lot going on, and there’s clearly a great deal of thought put into what we get even though it’s somewhat stripped down. To some, this style of filmmaking being utilized may actually be kind of odd since it’s an animated film that’s being marketed toward kids. Usually, you don’t want these things to be too complicated or too long in length when you’re gearing them toward a young audience.

The content included isn’t necessarily too mature for the younger crowd, but there are a ton of layers here that could potentially take away from some of the enjoyment that kids might have. This mainly lies in the story and how it’s unpacked. There’s a good amount of stuff being put together here. You can see that the planning was careful, but I don’t know how kids will receive it. There’s a likely chance that they won’t care, but this aspect could also be aimed more at adults.

Because of everything that’s included, Incredibles 2 runs nearly two hours long. This slows us down when talking about getting to some of the superhero stuff that we came to see, so that could factor in how people judge the movie. Just from the perspective of improving this, I think speeding it up and shaving about ten to fifteen minutes off could have helped. Once again, it’s a movie aimed at children. Making it faster could only work in its favor if you could somehow keep the story intact.

I’m sure most people who see Incredibles 2 will be happy with what they get in some form or another. There are issues here, but nothing that will make you regret seeing it. Under those circumstances, as long as they get the reaction they’re looking for, I’m sure everyone involved will be satisfied by the response from the public. That means this will not only be a financial success, but it also means they won’t be waiting fourteen years to release the next sequel.

Rating: PG

Director: Brad Bird

Cast:
Craig T. Nelson
Holly Hunter
Sarah Vowell
Huck Milner
Samuel L. Jackson
Brad Bird
Bob Odenkirk
Catherine Keener
Jonathan Banks
Sophia Bush
Isabella Rossellini

Film Length: 118 minutes

Release Date: June 15, 2018

Distributor: Disney*Pixar