Incredibles 2 (2018) Review

The Bois Are Back In Town

Yo, this be Reuben. As you may have noticed through the SAT500 series that just passed, oh the marathon it was, I’m a lover of Pixar, and most things they’ve made, except maybe if it’s Cars 2, hm. In fact, Incredibles 2 follows the studio’s trend of the last decade of sequels, which included that aforementioned trainwreck along with Toy Story 3, Finding Dory, Cars 3 and Monsters University (which is technically a prequel YES I KNOW YOU NERD). I’m gonna make the relatively bold-ish statement that this second Incredibles outing is their strongest sequel since Toy Story 3 — I’m the first person to think that, right?

Anyway, the film follows directly on from the end of the first film, seeing them beat up the Underminer as he wreaks havoc on the city, or, at least, they attempt to beat him up, and kinda completely fail, and that becomes the premise of the film. The superhero issue is done for good there and it’s ruled that they’ll remain illegal, but a certain brother and sister at DevTech give them a lifeline and try to rebuild the supers’ reputation and bring them back on the scene. So essentially the crux of it all becomes that Elastigirl goes about her hero business while Bob himself stays at home with the kids.

There they are, the lads.

It’s quite a simple plot and at the end of the day a lot of similarities can be drawn between it and the first film’s, but it’s different and fresh enough, and not so simple that it’s totally predictable in any sense. There’s many leads given but I think the writing is good enough that it keeps viewers on the edge of their seat, as the real antagonist is not quite clear for the majority of its runtime, keeping the suspense aptly decent and the entire film interesting. Nevertheless, while it is indeed quite similar in its premise to the original’s plot, it can feel a little less focused at times, as some moments can trail off a bit.

However, I think it’s unfair to base a review on comparing this sequel to the original, because that was such a piece of perfection, and a sequel is always going to feel less fresh. And although I think the story can lose a little bit of focus at points, the entertainment never really takes a break. The comedy writing throughout is fantastic, slinging classic Pixar quick-wit, as the family dynamic only grows and the characters become more developed, with the back-and-forths between the lot being a joy to see — while Jack-Jack is a huge ball of fun for the whole thing. An interesting thing about the film and its writing, too, is that it gets the serious stuff spot on, not really relying on the comedy as much as you may expect, and I think at some points, especially when Elastigirl is heroing around against Screenslaver – who, I might add, is a fantastic antagonist -, it feels like a better straight up superhero movie than most of Marvel’s best efforts.

Image result for incredibles 2 elastigirl

Cue ‘elastigirl is thicc’/’we all know the real reason we watchin incredibles 2’ meme

That last point ties in with the visuals of the whole affair, which are the best I’ve seen in a Pixar film since perhaps Wall-E. The animation has a brilliant cartoonish quality, which shows off all of the supers’ powers and different styles in a flashy and wonderfully colourful way, while the set-pieces and the action are genuinely awesome and the quality of the animation seems a new high for the studio. If there is one qualm I have here though, it’s that some of the new supers’ designs do come across as a little flat, they just don’t quite sit right with me. It may just be me, but that owl’s out of place, right? Right????

In conclusion, while at times it trails off a little and the focus could be more direct and straight to the point in the movie, Pixar have not failed to deliver here. Incredibles 2 is a great time, developing on the original, showing us more of the characters we already love and spicing things up at the same time. Yeah, it’s not as good as the first one, but barely anything is, let’s cut it some slack. This one comes easily recommendable for anyone looking for a good time.