The Next Episode

Rating: 6/10 (19 April 2019)

There's honestly nothing really wrong with The Incredibles 2. If all you're looking for is a solid family movie, it's enjoyable enough, with lots of action and fun characters.
But I can't shake the feeling that there's something about it that's... "off" feeling. It took Pixar fourteen years to make a sequel that is, by all accounts, a little more than average. The original Incredibles was a breath of fresh air, and the best super hero movie in its time. It broke new ground for Pixar in every aspect.
This just feels like the next episode of a television series. Everyone is kind of settling in to a status quo and the adventures continue. I know it's a weird complaint for a movie that's not actually bad.
Part of that, I think, has to do with the film's themes. The first Incredibles had the villain Syndrome, who defined the whole movie's attitude toward super heroes. It touched on how fans interact with their idols, the reality of being a "super", and the very real reasons people may resent them for their enhanced abilities. Those elements anchored everything in something more thoughtful than just punching out the bad guys in a secret volcano lair.
The Incredibles 2 lacks that anchor. It hamfistedly gestures towards the topics of media consumption and gender equality, but ultimately chooses to say nothing about either issue. Instead, it fills most of the movie with very standard superhero antics punctuated by smaller slices of family dynamic. It's all still fun... but they just aren't as deeply rooted as the themes of that first movie.
Again, it's just The Incredibles, but more of it. And unlike some movie sequels that feel like they're trying to replicate the formula of the first movie, Incredibles 2 stands out as its own thing. It just doesn't breach any new subjects. Instead, it comfortably rests in the shadow of the original.
For most people, that's good enough. But I was hoping for something a little more incredible.