User blog:AustinDR/Incredibles 2 (Review)

14 years ago was when the Pixar film The Incredibles was released. A story about a family of superheroes living in a world where superheroes were banned and made to relocate is what the first film delved into as well as the repercussions of such a banning. I will admit that the first film wasn't my favorite of the Pixar films, namely because I had actually watched the film twice in my lifetime: back in 2004 and 2008. That's not to say that it was a terrible film, but I didn't really get all of the love that most critics would give it. Out of all the Pixar films, I knew that the one that was a shoe-in for getting a sequel was the Incredibles. But what I did not expect was that it would take about 14 or so years for a sequel to be made.

As for the sequel, I honestly loved it, possibly more than the first film. The action scenes were fantastic, as well as the animation. The animation was definitely a major improvement between both films. However, a word of caution to note is that in some scenes there are flashy moments that could flair up epileptic fits in anyone who has a history of epileptic seizures. I was initially a little wary of Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl being in the leading role because I felt that it would've been a retread of the first film. That and since liberal Hollywood would often try to shoehorn in feminism in the name of "progressiveness," I was a little worried. To me, the first film already established Elastigirl as a strong character, and it wasn't because she was a woman. In the sequel, it does make some sense as to why Winston Deavor would select her as being the first step in getting supers legalized again because she actually ended up being documented as causing less collateral damage that other supers like Mr. Incredible and Frozone would inadvertently do, but I was somewhat hesitant to see the movie because I thought it was another ploy to try to appeal to SJWs. However, I would happily state that it wasn't as persistent an issue that many other critics had made it out to be.

The side plot of Mr. Incredible trying to care for the kids was personally my favorite parts of the movie because in the first film, you hardly got any moments of that with the first film. Violet also received some considerable development from the first film, and Jack-Jack's powers are explored further in this film. Jack-Jack was probably my favorite character in the film because of how his powers made him do several humorous feats, my favorite being when he was fighting off a raccoon trying to eat their garbage. The one plot I did feel was kind of pointless was Violet's, but mostly because it amounted to "boy trouble."

The new characters are fine for the most part. Winston comes off as likable because of his adorkable tendencies to reminisce about the days when supers were still legal, and there was his sister Evelyn Deavor, who mostly did the technological side of the company. The new supers brought in were fascinating in appearance, but they don't receive as much development. The only interesting super that was introduced was Voyd who had the power to create portals, but for the most part, she was the one who I felt stood out the most from the new recruits. Lastly, there's the Screenslaver, a villain who has the power to brainwash people into doing his bidding and could hack into any network with ease. I will admit that for an Incredibles villain, the Screenslaver was not as good as Syndrome, but I don't really find that an issue. My only problem with the Screenslaver was that his true identity was just so obvious. Disney and Pixar had been having a recent trend where they have a character who seems to be nice at first only to then be revealed as the bad guy. It's not too different there, though I do think they deliberately added a red herring to at the very least make you suspect someone else before the twist.

Overall, it was a great film that I would recommend seeing, especially if you're one of those people who waited for 14 years for a follow up.

8 out of 10 stars