6/19/18 - Incredibles 2 (2018) - 6+/10

I don’t know if you have ever had a passed girlfriend or boyfriend pursue you after a long hiatus. In the time you weren’t together you grew, you changed, and you stopped being into them. It’s not that they aren’t nice or attractive still, but there just isn’t a spark...a sizzle...they have just become someone that you used to know. That is what this Incredibles 2 felt like. It’s not that it wasn’t able to pull in some social commentary (the prepackaged life bits feed to us through our screens, the Lex Luthor argument that having these super people around stunts humanities growth, causing a diminishing of dreams and a lessening of hopeful human expectations), current relevance (pushing all the stories as those of women, which was a welcome addition, especially in this pseudo-50’s setting), or even a possible dig at the incessant superhero movie genre itself. That said, I just didn’t feel the magic or smoothness. Competent, but anemic in the vision of the previous. It simply felt like a film that came around a decade after it should have.

The action is kinetic and exciting while the characters are like an old blanket, both comforting and recognizable. There is little that surprises or pushes any boundary in any way, but the unremarkable is not without beautiful skill and a perceptible pleasantness. This is a fun little sequel, with its heart in the right place and its nose to the grindstone. I just hoped that it could have been more.

There is nothing in Incredibles 2 that struck me as bad. Perhaps low hanging at times or lacking the strength of its previous convictions to be something truly special, but never unworthy. It was another notch on Pixar’s belt and an above average animated feature to take your children to, which is a true rarity. It may never draw me in to watch again, but I liked this heartfelt superhero film that does a good job doing what it strives to do, and that is battling raccoons (a.k.a. providing a charming but forgettable time).