Are the Incredibles still, well... incredible?

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2018)

It's a hard question to answer right off the bat. They're super, that's for sure, but incredible? Perhaps if Incredibles 2 was released 10 years ago they'd still be. But in today's popular culture, while the woman power message is relevant, the story has missed it's timing-by a decade or so.
The first movie, The Incredibles, was the movie that solidified my fascination with Pixar. And frankly, it wasn't a difficult thing to do. The 2004 animation has everything needed to captivate a 14-year-old boy in a world of supers while keeping that fascination grounded with everyday family matters. It is a well rounded adventure, truly for the whole family to enjoy and come back to. At that young age, I was inclined to follow Violet's point of view of beginning to experience teenage angst and worries. I'm not at all embarrassed to admit that I had a bit of a crush on the socially awkward character.
Of course, now that admission would be wrong to reaffirm, considering I'm 14 years older now than I was back then, while the Parr family picks up literally right where they left off at the end of the last movie. In my initial viewing of Incredibles 2, it was thrilling to see the super family and Frozone take on the Underminer. That conflict had 14 years of anticipation to satisfy, and it does fairly well with mildly interesting action paired with top-of-the-line animation. I should state right now that none of the action in Incredibles 2 comes close to the release of pure excitement that the first movie brings, particularly with Dash figuring out that he can run on water, chortling as he does so with the soundtrack silencing and crescendoing back in. There are plenty of fights in the sequel, but sadly no scene is as iconic and memorable.
As an older boy, I find myself relating more with Elastigirl this time around, who spends a majority of the movie out of the home purposely seeking danger in order to show a super's perspective to the world. While the movie focusing on a female protagonist is the new thing in America (not sure if "new" is appropriate considering it's been done many times in recent years with a wink and a nod) many of the plot devices and story elements have been done before, surprisingly enough even in the first movie! In both films, the protagonist is approached by a wealthy, eccentric billionaire claiming to be sympathetic towards supers and wants to give them a chance, despite supers being illegal. The protagonist, through their new employer, carries out hero work, unbeknownst to them that the one behind the villainous strings is the one who hired them. In the end, the villain attempts to use the protagonist to carry out their own agenda to demean the existence of supers.
Syndrome's classic line from the first movie is "And when everyone's super, no one will be."
The Screenslaver says something along the lines of "Make supers illegal permanently."
Both villains are backed by reasonable and heartfelt stories, but Syndrome's boyhood dream of wanting to become a super along with his past connection with Mr. Incredible makes him a far more complex antagonist. Mr. Incredible essentially made the villain Syndrome, while the Screenslaver is more of a female villain in a female lead adventure. It's the classic, the protagonist is a woman, so let's make the antagonist a woman as well! It's cool, but nothing personal is going on between Helen Parr and Evelyn Deavor, besides the awkward nods of acknowledgement tossed back and forth between the two. When Evelyn reveals herself to be "the mastermind behind the mastermind," and Elastigirl says, "I trusted you!" I couldn't help but think, Why, at the same time Evelyn replies with the exact same thought. Just because she's a woman? Just because you gave her a nod and she gave you one back? That revelation was not an enjoyable scene. In fact, I'll label it as the worst scene in the movie. It didn't help that the true identity of the villain was more predictable than the twists in Ocean's 8.
But at least, like its predecessor, Incredibles 2 allows the rest of the characters an opportunity to shine. Jack-Jack gets a bit of a long sequence showcasing some of his new and old powers while fighting a raccoon. Fun, but again, a bit long. Edna Mode seems to steal the show for some people with her unique characteristics and manner of speech. And Violet and Dash provide the everyday family problems of boy trouble and math respectively (you never know, it's 2018). You'd imagine that there would be plenty of laughs to be had with Mr. Incredible struggling to fulfill the role as a stay-at-home dad, but most of the situational setups procure sweet, tender moments instead, which is typical of Pixar. However, there are no tearjerker scenes. (The Incredibles franchise hasn't come to that yet.)
Either way, through empathy or humor, the latest Pixar film with leave you smiling. It won't be an incredible smile like Frozone's, but something along the lines of super.