It’s Incredible

Incredibles 2 (2018) was, of course, incredible. Maybe as incredible as the first, plus or minus the novelty. It is great visually, has a big cast of fine roles, filled with great voice actors, and some big ideas. That last part may be the problem for me.

It begins with Mr and Ms Incredible (Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter) fighting a mole man in a boring machine. This is illegal, since the Sokovia Accords or whatever they are called. Also, it goes poorly, even though Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) appears to help out. The bad guy (John Ratzenberger) even gets away.

The Incredible family has been living in hotels and safe houses with the help of government man Jonathan Banks - pretty clearly modeled after Tommy Lee Jones from Men in Black, down to the memory ray. But now the hero protection service is being shut down, and they will need to face the hostile world alone.

Here we get a little monologue from Hunter about how they have to depend on themselves, how no one else is going to help them, etc. It’s weirdly Randian (and I guess so it the first Incredibles), and that odd right wing flavor is one of the things that kept taking me out of the movie.

Anyway, a billionaire (Bob Odenkirk) and his genius sister (Katherine Keener) have a proposition for them. He will work to get the Fuck Heroes Anyway Act (or whatever) repealed, by putting them in a sort of crimefighting reality show. Since all recent supervillains are basically Elon Musk, we were suspicious right away.

But before we get to that, we get Mr. Incredible babysitting Jack-Jack. I don’t think the old “men can’t handle cooking or babies” gag is very fresh, but Jack-Jack is about my favorite part of this franchise. Like Franklin Richards (the Incredible family is mostly based on the Fantastic Four), he is ridiculously overpowered - he’s invulnerable, shots laser beams from his eyes, can duplicate himself, fly, teleport, change appearance, and turn into a giant demon. Mr I tries to keep this from Ms I and finally takes JJ to Edna Mode for help (another fave) and she takes care of him.

Meanwhile, Ms I is getting famous, bonding with Keener and meeting another X-Men-like crew of supers. The best is low-self-esteem goth-girl Voyd, played by Sophia Bush. With Odenkirk’s help, they get the Ambassador (Isabella Rossellini) to help them legalize superheroism. They are needed to fight Screenslaver, a supervillain who can take over the mind of anyone who looks at electronic screens. This is clumsy topicalism, but reminded me of Ghost in the Shell, which clued me in that there might be a villain behind the villain.

All this is done in Brad Bird’s classic animation style, with a script that is both embedded in and commenting on modern superhero movies. That’s all great. But there’s so much random stuff, like Ms I’s Republicanism, Mr I’s old-fashioned dumb male role shtick, the billionaire villains (no spoiler), and the now-standard anti-hero legislation that just sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Too many “huh?” or “oh come on” moments.

On the other hand, Violet’s (Sarah Vowell) teen romance sub-plot, while not very original, seemed sweet and fun to me. Your mileage may vary.