Film of the Week: Incredibles 2

After a long 14 year wait, we’re finally gifted with the sequel to 2004’s The Incredibles. Picking up exactly where the first film left off – which satisfied my inner child as we finally found out what happened with the Underminer. The rest of the film is amazing. Now I’m a fully grown adult, I can enjoy and understand the film better than I did the first one upon first showing.

The Director, Brad Bird, stated he would only make a sequel if there was a good enough story. When he announced a sequel as in the works, that could only mean the story was a good story, and because the first one was a smash hit, it needed to live up to the automatic hype generated just by the mere mention of the announcement, without anything else such as a release date. The more and more information Pixar was willing to give us over time, the more we grew excited, and subsequently, the hype grew stronger. Pixar’s catalogue of films has been amazing. They’re technology has improved, their storytelling has improved, and out trust that a Pixar film will be amazing from start to finish also grew stronger. Being a massive fan of the studio, yes, I did unintentionally get caught by the hype, but I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed anyway.

Incredibles 2 is a beautiful family friendly story. There are plenty of people who were kids when they saw the first, and now have children of their own, and they are seeing this at the cinema. Incredibles 2 not only spoke to the children of today, but also made sure to include those who were children before. It incorporated the family friendly aspect into the film’s plot, allowing the new parents to have a film that speaks to them just as much as the first one did back then.

There’re plenty of topics discussed in this film, but the main one many have already pointed out is Bob staying home to look after the kids whilst Helen goes out for the day. Bob is a stay-at-home-dad. I don’t have anything of relevance to the topic as I don’t have any experience in that field. I’m not a dad. But, Pixar has handled the topic with their usual delicate hands. Incredibles 2 doesn’t tug on our heart strings as much as previous films do, but it doesn’t need to. The film is about family, and how they must overcome certain challenges to be a family. Now I am an adult, I can understand the themes explored in this film much better than if I watched it as a child. It’s an important subject that isn’t usually explored much, and integrating it into a family of superheroes allows for some creative freedom – whilst remaining realistic; it’s a wonderful blend of the two.

However, the primary focus is aimed at children, and so that’s what the story needs to be for. The superhero aspect of the story was predictable. It was an almost instantaneous call out by me in regards to who the main villain was. If the film wasn’t aimed at children, that level of predictability would have ruined the film, and it can be argued that us adults can say the film lost a lot of enjoyment from automatically figuring out who the villain was – but that criticism was 14 years in the making. The Incredibles was a film us children saw over and over again, because it was awesome. Now we’re adults, we have an adult mind, we can piece together what we wouldn’t have before. If we were children seeing Incredibles 2 for the first time, changes are we would have been totally surprised to learn who the main villain was; we would never have been able to figure it out. As adults, we’ve watched a lot of films, learnt how to piece together logical deductions, and so it was an easy call out.

Sure, I found it predictable, but I also found it entertaining. I’m an adult now. Incredibles 2 does it’s very best to target both adults and children the same, but it’s primary focus is children, not adults, and we have to remember that. If you do, the film is highly enjoyable and is equally full of nostalgia and new beginnings.

I guess Incredibles 2 has reminded me just how much I’ve grown over these past 14 years. It’s also shocking and slightly scary how fast the time has gone. It does feel like 14 years have passed, but at the same time, in the next 14 years, I’ll be 38. I’m not ready to accept that yet.

Incredibles 2 is a terrific movie that makes sure both adults and children alike are entertained. Pixar has done it once again.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)