Father Doesn't Always Know Best

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2018)

It was probably inevitable given the wait that Pixar put us through for this sequel to its 2004 masterpiece that expectations would be somewhat disappointed. "Incredibles 2," while a lot of fun, never reaches the dizzying snap of the original and it didn't leave me panting for a third installment in the series.
This time around, the focus shifts to Elastigirl and the business proposal offered her by a brother/sister team to use her celebrity as a way to bring superheroes out of hiding and back into the mainstream. This means that Mr. Incredible gets left at home with the kids and his feeling of inadequacy at being overshadowed by his wife. In this current climate of extreme "wokeness," the screenplay could have done a lot with this idea of threatened middle-class white male masculinity, but it instead decides to take the predictable and rather tired route of showing how hard it is to be a stay-at-home parent. Is there really a lot more humor to be wrung from the premise that 1950s dads had no idea how to run a household?
The plot involving Elastigirl, meanwhile, thickens, as such plots do, but not in the most compelling of ways. The villain of the film is weak and uninspired, and the plot becomes muddled and messy by the film's end. When the movie was over I found myself wishing it had just been about the Parrs fighting the Underminer rather than any of the things the movie was actually about.
The best part of the film, and the one that I think has the most room for exploration if Pixar decides to make more sequels, was watching Dash and Violet begin their growth into independent superheros in their own right. That's what the third film should be about, if there is one.
Grade: B+