The Credibles

Rating: 6/10 (18 June 2018)

All in all, The Incredibles 2 isn't a bad movie, but compared to the original it is unexceptional in every aspect. The original felt like it was constantly taking big risks and trying ambitious and interesting scenes throughout it, and as a result the final product was one of the most fun and engaging family films of all time. The sequel on the other hand felt safe, generic, and surprisingly boring. The plot made sense, but it simply wasn't incredible by any means, choosing instead to be mostly a slice of life film, and the drama is pulled from X-Men, going for politics and oppression, but it's more of a distraction than anything else.
The main cast was fine with a few nitpicks to make here and there, though none of the out-of-character moments were significant enough to pull me out of the film. The gimmick with this film is that it's essentially a flip of the first film with Elastigirl in Mr. Incredible's place while Mr. Incredible stays home and takes care of the kids. Oddly enough, the most interesting scenes were the ones in which Mr. Incredible is interacting with the rest of the family, despite how boring that might sound for a superhero film, but at least such scenes have charm to them. Mr. Incredible's jealousy was a bit overdone, however it wasn't long-lived enough to become obnoxious. The voice acting was great, aside from Holly Hunter, as her voice was much more whistly than it was 14 years ago, as well as her accent becoming a tad more Sean Connery-y.
The plot is very basic. It's odd that it's being sold as this big thing that took 14 years to make when obviously they were working on other things instead while this sequel was on the backburner. If you ever expect the movie to go in a certain way, you'll be absolutely correct. It might be one of the most predictable films of all time. There's also the issue of repetition, as every action scene basically boils down to "big vehicle will cause mass destruction if we don't shut it down in time," first with the Underminer, then with the runaway train, and the cruise ship at the climax. Elastigirl is the hero for most of the film until at the end they have to learn to work together and put their powers to use to defeat a greater enemy, just like in the first film. It is especially frustrating when the kids point this out to her at the very start of the film, especially since this film takes place only three months after the previous film, and she refuses to listen to them until the end.
The humor is pretty decent and the film has a decent charm to it even during its worst moments. One of the major detriments is that a lot of the humor is safe and predictably effective, such as Jack-Jack doing dumb baby things throughout. Sure, seeing him fighting a raccoon is very entertaining, as is the interdimensional stuff, but it's ultimately used as a replacement for writing an intriguing story.
The villain, Screenslaver, was not great in my opinion. She pales greatly in comparison to Syndrome from the first film, who might be one of the greatest villains of all time. Screenslaver's motivation feels incredibly weak, especially since she's directly contrasted by her brother who went through exactly the same loss as she did, except he had a rational reaction to the situation. She also helps Elastigirl in legalizing superheroes at first so she can flip it and the idea is that reillegalizing superheroes will make it so they stay illegal forever, but it just seems incredibly stupid how she's hoist with her own petard.
The feminist angle didn't feel like much of a thing in this film really, despite what the Buzzfeed copycats report. I'm sure it will be obnoxious to many others, but it felt subtle enough to be natural in the context of the film, which is rare in current year. but If anything, the villain Screenslaver is a bit feminist, though since she's the main villain, it's hardly an empowering role. Void is kind of SJW-ish I suppose, but she's got a few minutes of screen time, so whatever.
I also felt there was a serious pacing issue throughout this film. I would never have expected this film to be nearly as boring as it was, but it was actually mindnumbing when I realized I was watching the fifth scene in a row with zero action. None of the talkshow stuff interested me, as the side characters were just one-dimensional garbage, even if that was intended to be satire on dumb hosts, but all of the new characters that Elastigirl interacts with kind of suck. The only one who's developed is Screenslaver, and she's horrifically stereotypical, thus their conversations are dull.
The special effects are beautiful, as one might guess, and certainly an improvement to the first film, though the first film was more mindblowing for its time given the lesser technology back then. Some of the artistic choices are a bit questionable, as I feel Elastigirl is now heavily sexualized given her new flashy suit and the frequent low-angle rear shots. It almost feels like rather than taking the Shrek route of tossing in innuendos for the adults, they just took the easy route of framing each shot to emphasize sexual traits. I'm also rather desensitized to special effects as most animated films look beautiful nowadays, but lack interesting plots, and this film unfortunately falls into that category.
Incredibles 2 is good, but it isn't phenomenal, and hardly deserves its title. It's ultimately lackluster, but it has good moments sprinkled throughout it, and it is worth a watch if you're interested in nice animated films or the original film, but otherwise I would think it to be boring and dull.