Entertaining, but a vague re-hash of the firsr

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2018)

"The Incredibles" was - and it remains - the gold standard of Pixar films. It was in many respects the high water mark of their team of creative visionaries - and it proved a prescient and brilliant move for them to bring in Brad Bird during a creative slump. Bird completely reenergized a major movie studio in the creative doldrums.
In fact after "Cars" I was genuinely concerned that they had lost their mojo - again. I wondered if they had reached their creative peak with "The Incredibles" and their best work was behind them.
"Toy Story 3" - another sequel very long in the making - "Inside Out" and now "Coco" proved me wrong. While perhaps not quite as good as "The Incredibles" they were great, engaging and deeply emotional and creative films. I loved them and it was clear the team behind loved the material too.
I was concerned even before "The Incredibles 2" started. They - the film's principal voice actors - and Brad Bird himself (again helming as writer and director) came on screen to, one thank "The Incredibles" many many fans for being so patient, but also to assure those same fans that it would be well worth the wait - before we had seen one minute of film.
Such assurances felt gratuitous. A great film speaks for itself and stands on its own. There is no need to psyche us out and "guarantee" us that the sequel will be at least as equally good as the original. I was worried and it turns out I had good cause to be.
As it turns out "The Incredibles 2" is not only not as good as the original - far from it - but it feels somewhat like a retread of the original story - with far less engagement and emotional attachment than we had with the characters originally.
Yes there are innumerable great action sequences and superb animation (I would say the animated characters and scenes felt "slicker" and more 2D in the original whereas here everything feels slightly rounder, fuller, and more 3D - somewhat like you'd expect with modern Disney Studio digital animation) but there seemed to be a heavy reliance on the original including plenty of nearly word for word copying of some of the original dialog. It was somewhat eerie hearing the same dialogue and verbal cues when it didn't quite seem necessary. I get wanting to do something of an homage to the original but I heard the same cues so often it felt like it was overdone.
I won't recount the plot as others have done but it bears numerous similarities to the original including a central character who hates supers and wants revenge against them.
Elastigirl was much more the main character this time with Mr. Incredible and the kids playing almost in the background - though certainly they're all central to the story. Dash had a lot of screen time as did Jack-Jack but as a super felt almost completely unused. Interestingly Frozone had a great deal more screen time than the original and actually felt quite well used vs. the original. Frozone's talents seemed rather silly in the original (oooooh look he can throw up big walls of ice, whoopie) but I thought they did a super job of exploiting his capabilities in the sequel.
While the quality was there in "The Incredibles 2", the engagement was not. The love I felt for the original characters and story was not broadly in evidence. It turned out to be a big disappointment.
In retrospect I think it would have been wise for Bird to sit this one out. Just as George Lucas wisely brought in a great and highly competent director for the very first "Star Wars" sequel - The Empire Strikes Back (now widely considered the best of that series) - Bird and Pixar/Disney would have been wise to bring in a creative team with an almost reverent love for the original but also a fresh creative energy, especially when it became clear that in spirit and execution "The Incredibles 2" was becoming more like the competent but uninspired nearly straight to DVD sequel like "Cars 2" and "Cars 3."
While I think they made some very smart plot choices such as picking up right where the original left off I wish they had taken more creative risks. Again it just felt like they were taking it easy, slapping together a ton of great if somewhat uninteresting action sequences and relying more heavily then they needed to on the original.
Though they left the door open for a third film - and beyond - I think it would be sad to keep it going. Its huge financial success belies its many creative misses.