Pan and Slam

Movie Review: Incredibles 2

PG | 1h 58min

by Jason Koenigsberg

Well this long awaited sequel is exactly what fans will want and it’s a glorious animated picture. Unlike some other Pixar sequels this decade Incredibles 2 was worth the wait and lives up to it’s name. If anything the over saturation of superhero movies in recent years makes Incredibles 2 less special than the original whereas back in 2004 when the first one was released it had a unique quality and stood out among the other choices at the multiplex. That should not be held against Incredibles 2 but what made the original so refreshing is impossible to have in the sequel. Although it is not as fun and thrilling as the original, it is still worth the price of admission. 

It opens up with a beautifully animated and elaborate Incredibles themed Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar logos. Then the first shot is a dark room with a spotlight on the audience and one of the agents from the first film that helped our titular family. From there the action picks up right where the previous film left off. 14 years later Incredibles 2 tries to make it feel like no time has passed at all since we last saw these characters. The plot of this movie is similar to the first with a slightly different point of view and more emphasis on the female heroes of the family as the mother has a job and Mr. Incredible has to stay home and be more domesticated helping his son with math, fixing his daughter’s social problems and most troublesome taking care of the baby Jack-Jack as he discovers his superpowers. Those all make for some very lighthearted comedic moments. 

Incredibles 2 is really about characters and a family as a whole searching for identity and figuring out who they are. The government tells them to be one thing, their consciences tell them to be something else. They are characters struggling to fit into society and conform or rebel against the laws that they feel are unjust. The plot reflects our own issues about media bias and peoples perception of things they do not understand. It has shades of Orwell’s ‘1984’ and that is very respectable. 

There is a twist near the end that is very predictable, but Incredibles 2 is a family movie at heart so it can be forgiven. It also had some great small touches like a loving reference to Hannah-Barbera’s Jonny Quest which Incredibles took a lot of ideas from.  Incredibles 2 is not as innovative and groundbreaking as the 2004 original, it is just a continuation in the adventures of a superhero family and leaves the door open for a third film that will hopefully get made sooner and not make audiences wait another 14 years.