Carried by great animation and action

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2007)

The Incredibles describes a period in the life of two ex-super-heroes and their young family. When Mr. Incredible loses his "normal life" job, he discovers a suspicious job offer that requires his super abilities. This brings him out of retirement without him explaining it to his family. Eventually, the job develops into a large scale scheme. This is mostly done to set up a rivalry between Mr. Incredible and Syndrome, a troubled villain whose anger was spawned from Mr. Incredible's rejection of him as a sidekick.
Syndrome is a stereotypical villain: a selfish and remorseless man that somehow has access to a lot of technology and employees to carry out damage onto society. He is flat and unlikable. The good guys (primarily the Incredibles family) are also very stereotyped, and do not really show any deep emotion. I guess it is supposed to reflect what we expect super-heroes to be like, but it leaves a little void when trying to understand them. Even so, the characters are used creatively in the action sequences, especially the ones that combine all the abilities together. The animation was top notch quality and flowed smoothly. The music was exactly what you expect super-hero music to be. It went good with the action sequences, but not much else, and got dry by the end.
The Incredibles is a great kids/family movie, but does not have enough essence to make an impact on older viewers. There were some good parody moments and unique action sequences, as well as plenty of comedy (I loved it when Syndrome remarked "You caught me monologuing"). Recommended for all viewers, but especially the younger ones.