So, after chewing on this a few hours this morning, I started coming up with crazy theories. Buuuut it’s also out in theaters now, so let’s talk some basics first before we get down to that.
I’ll say out the gate I definitely like the first one more, but they are different movies and have different strengths. Nothing in this one really gets the same emotional weight as Bob’s two big emotional scenes in the first, I think most of the slower paced hero sequences worked better in the first, and it all wraps up much more concretely and satisfyingly. 2 has more flaws, mostly in that the way they weave Helen’s A plot and Bob’s B plot together doesn’t quite mesh, or at least seems like a few scenes were in a strange place? I’m having trouble pinning down exactly what the issue is.
However 2 is a lot better at big bombastic action scenes (in part just because of the advances made in 14 years of digital animation of course), and more importantly it’s the funnier movie. It leans on slapstick more directly, but y’know what, don’t underestimate good slapstick. There’s also a subtler sense of banter between the family, in that “not really angry but kinda mad” way, that never really cropped up in the original which makes sense since this one is more forward-looking and less strained for everyone.
There seems to have been a very conscious decision to highlight the ladies in this one, because Helen manages to kick even more ass than in the original (impossible as that may seem), Evelyn oozes style in a way that I have to love for a Q-type character, and Voyd is adorable and I’ll not hear otherwise.
Really this is sorta a long-form “if you want more Incredibles, this is a slightly different take on that, but definitely fills that box”. Lacks a certain something, but as theater picks go you can do far worse.
Rating- 6/10
Okay! Soooooo.
The big hot take in the era of internet hot takes has long since been that The Incredibles was basically a batch of Objectivism wrapped up in friendly kid-digestible form. I certainly touched on that when I talked about it, mostly from the perspective of “well I mean, it’s worth looking at”. And I think I got it right: a certain amount of that is inevitable, because of the nature of super heroes, but the fine details of the story all work pretty hard to fight against this: the horrifically pro-corporate Insuricare boss is portrayed even less sympathetically than Syndrome, the heroes are all under the (wholly willing!) supervision of the government, and Dash and Syndrome both using the “when everyone’s super no one is” sentiment seems like a deliberate setup to debunk it, an immature child at the start of his journey.
But if you’re so determined, you can build that argument. And I think overall Incredibles 2 thus set out to be more explicitly against such things. Bob’s obsessive need to help people was cheekily cited as one of his weaknesses in bonus materials in the original, and while he absolutely goes above and beyond in that department comparatively, 2 introduces a ton of new supers and they uniformly display that same drive to altruism. The desire to use their powers publically because it’s part of their identity fits the usual outsider mentality you see in superhero fiction, but the specific bent towards using it for good being universal even outside Helen and Bob’s personal circle is telling.
The more conclusive bit is how the villain uses the “superheroes are inherently kinda Randian” argument as the foundation of her entire plot. She weaponizes it against them, while cultivating the Objectivist Ubermench image for herself in the process.
- Makes multiple references to the fact that she personally designed and built all the tech that sustains the family business.
- Considers working in “sales” or otherwise engaging with people who are not at her level as beneath her, peasant work to foist upon her less capable brother.
- Specifically mentions her father depending on others, rather than the safe room he built, as the reason he died.
- Builds the entire character of the Screenslaver around rants of personal responsibility, decrying people for relying on heroes, or the government, or anyone but themselves to solve their problems while they leech off society.
- Specifically invokes the idea of supers seizing power for themselves when feeding them lines while mind controlled to panic the public.
That is just a laundry list of ticked boxes there, more even than Syndrome, and it feels like more of a stretch to say that isn’t the point.
Also the part where she spends the whole movie telling Helen how much alike they are and how they should be great friends, all to build up to a wholesale rejection of every one of her arguments. (…. granted that could also just be that Evelyn is into her, but I mean I’m pretty sure that “sexually attracted to Elasticgirl” is synonymous with “has a pulse” in the Incredibles universe.) But really it’s just a clearer, more direction version of the same general thrust the original had. The Incredibles concludes that being ‘special’ only matters if you’re true to yourself and those around you, and Incredibles 2 returns to one of the oldest of all heroic mantras: with great power, there must also come great responsibility.
And while there’s a lot of differences in execution, these thematic similarities are a big part of why 2 hasn’t left as much of an impression on me. Yeah, it’s doing a clearer, louder version of that one theme, but it lacks the texture of the original. Like, I don’t think there’s another good thematic reading of it. Meanwhile, you could absolutely read The Incredibles as… oh, I dunno, a veteran narrative. Or a statement on toxic fandom, or on masculinity, or about the lasting damage cold war paranoia had on that generation. Not all of them WELL, but it’s there, and when it comes to lasting the test of time, that sorta thing matters a lot. And maybe my opinion of 2 will rise over time (certainly I think my opinion of The Incredibles dipped a little over time, perhaps one day they’ll meet in the middle), but unless I missed something… it’s just kinda good, solid theater fun.
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