Incredible by name, incredible by nature although not Pixar's best

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2013)

I saw this film at the cinema twice when I was 17; once with my mum where we missed the beginning and only saw it from the part where Dash is in the principal's office with Helen/Elastigirl for putting a pin on the teacher's chair; and the second time when I saw it with some fellow college students and support staff as a reward for keeping on top of my work. It is on par with 'Cars' and 'Ratatouille' but it is not quite as enjoyable as the likes of 'Up' and the 'Toy Story' trilogy (my personal favourite Pixar films, especially TS3).
The positive points of this film are the action scenes, cool special effects and the futuristic monorail-type pods and Syndrome's long-legged robotic contraptions that looked awesome. I also liked the fact that it avoided certain superhero clichés such as Edna Mode not adding capes to the Parr/Incredible family's suits due to them causing problems with past supeheroes in spite of Elastigirl being similar to Mr Fantastic and Violet being similar to The Invisible Woman/Girl but Syndrome's demise was creative since his cape got caught in a jet engine, thus adding a new spin on a superhero cliché and a villain death. Another part that kept me entertained was the running gag of the little boy on his tricycle waiting for Mr Incredible/Bob to do something amazing, which eventually led to him shouting, "That was totally wicked!" upon witnessing an explosion. The fact that there were two sides to the Parr/Incredible family was appealing because they were a typical dysfunctional family in some scenes and a cooperative superhero family in others. One part of the film that confused me was Dash's place in his race towards the end of the film because on the first few times I watched this film I thought he came first but when I listened to the audio description (which I enjoyed listening to because I was doing a radio drama course at the time), he had actually come second. I found the film a tad overlong as well, but I thought Frozone was a rather amusing side character and Jack-Jack is a cute member of the family. Although he didn't do much to begin with, I liked him bursting into flames and becoming metallic when trying to defeat Syndrome.
Overall this isn't Pixar's best but it is still watchable for its breathtaking action scenes, futuristic elements and its use of superhero clichés in new ways. 8/10.