THE REEL: Incredibles 2

Would you believe it’s a whole 14 years later that we got the sequel to the superhero animation The Incredibles?

Yeah, I didn’t believe my eyes when I looked back at the release date of that first movie because I can remember parts of the movie so vividly; more so the action sequence where Dash and Violet get separated from their parents on the island and they have to outsmart the guards and their firepower. I digress.

EVIL OVER EXPENSES

The supers are back again in Incredibles 2 and it doesn’t look like time has passed since we last saw this giftedly enhanced family on screen. The story follows the Parr family as they try to restore public's trust in superheroes while balancing their family life. I don’t know how to tell this without giving the plot away but I sure will try.

The destruction that the supers have been causing, even as they go on with their self-driven duty to defend the public from villains, is not going down well with the authorities. In their minds, it would be less expensive if the bag guys came in, did their bad deeds, and just walked away from towns without having roads and pavements ground out, or cars and buildings destroyed.

Bob Parr/Mr Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Helen Parr/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), Violet Parr (Sarah Vowell) and Dashiell Parr/Dash (Huckleberry Milner) are asked to stand down from doing any more crime fighting or rescue missions in their city because the public has grown scared of them.

A businessman, Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) sees this suspension of supers from being able to aid citizens as a wrong that shouldn’t have seen the light of day. He picks Elastigirl to be his project that will make the public have confidence in the supers once again.

FAMILY

Mr incredible, though supportive of his wife’s newfound quest, still believes that it should have been he who was tasked with “bringing back the supers to the sun”. He turns to his best friend and fellow super Lucius Best/Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) to vent his thoughts as his wife carries the hope of all supers on her shoulders.

We remember Jack-Jack Parr (Eli Fucile) at the end of The Incredibles showing that he was also a super, but the family didn’t get to see what was happening high up in the air for him to get away from the clasps of Syndrome. How will the family react to his powers? The only way to find out is by watching the movie.

Written and directed by Brad Bird, who put aside further development on a sequel to work on other films, it’s very interesting to see how he focused on the family dynamics of this superhero clan rather than the superhero genre. We see Mr Incredible like a normal dad who struggles to take care of the children when he has to stay at home as his wife goes to work, yet he would have been quick to dismiss that looking after the household is a job anyone can do.

Violet is a teenage girl who wants to grow into that phase seamlessly, and not be burdened by responsibilities that she feels her parents took on for her – she feels this prevents her from living a normal life. Dash is just another boy who is glad to have food at the end of the day and doesn’t have to think about anything else be-sides homework and TV. Meanwhile, Elastigirl is the typical working mum who wants to be at work but still run the home via remote.

For the reasons I have mentioned above, and the fact that Michael Giacchino returned to compose the score, I think you will find the film’s suspense, action and storyline something worth watching over and over. It’s a general viewer movie so feel free to watch it with whoever you would want to.

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