'Incredibles 2' A Review

It's been nearly a week since Incredibles 2 was released in the UK and I've had time to mull over the film that I saw and properly consider its worth in light of its predecessor and the current film landscape. The first Incredibles, released in 2004, was a superhero film the likes of which we'd never seen before. A family of 'supers' forced into hiding as superheroes had been outlawed, a film you'd expect would largely focus on superheroics, instead focused on the domestic. Dealing mainly with the struggles of such an extraordinary family in a less than extraordinary setting. It was about the domestic elements of the family, slowly developing their own identities as 'supers' allowing those identities to bring them closer together as a family and as a team.

The sequel was released 14 years later in a cinematic landscape much different to that of its predecessor. We're very much on the brink of cinema being oversaturated with superhero-themed films that smash box office record after box office record, it was hard to see quite where the sequel would fit into this new landscape.

Set three months after the ending of the first film, the family have pursued The Underminer who successfully manages to rob the Metroville Bank and escape. The family, however, with the help of Frozone, are able to successfully prevent The Underminer's drill from destroying City Hall. The chaos and destruction caused by the super antics cause the family to get arrested and the superhero relocation programme to be shut down. The family has only a few months left in the government funded motel before they're finally out on their own. The family, however, are thrown a bone, when Frozone introduces them to Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk), a superhero fan and owner of DevTech. He wants to bring supers back, and the only way to do that is to improve the public's perception of the work that they do. He, much to the chagrin of Bob, proposes that the best hero for this job is Helen's alter-ego, Elastigirl.

This leaves Bob on the sidelines to look after the kids while Helen goes out to save the world and create a better environment so that all supers can thrive. He struggles with the basics of raising kids, the confusion over Dash's math homework that re-writes the rules of how math is supposed to work, Violet's first crush whose memory of her was wiped by Government agent, Dicker, after he discovered her superhero identity, and Jack-Jack's new array of superpowers.

On the face of it, and certainly going by the trailers, one would have expected that the main focus of the film would have been to focus on Bob feeling inadequacies as a man for struggling to look after the kids while his wife goes out to work. But the film offers something so completely different. While struggling initially with the parenting chores, Bob slowly begins to find his groove in the home and looking after the kids, helping in his understanding of his kids and how best to treat them. The cutest aspects of the whole movie being baby Jack-Jack's adventures through his powers, including a fun little battle with a trash stealing raccoon, Jack-Jack's first true foray into superheroics.

The style of the film's animation remains loyal to the style of the first film while clearly getting an upgrade in the environments and general special effects. The physical humor, mainly focusing around Jack-Jack, are arguably the funniest aspects of the movie, I found myself struggling to find many funny things involving any of the other characters, but the true belly laughs coming from scenes involving the baby of the family. A return of Edna Mode also manages to deliver some great humor that many no doubt expected, but sadly she only appeared for a short part in the movie, and I was hoping to see more of this character, considering her popularity in the first film.

Many fans of the original will no doubt go and see the sequel purely for nostalgic purposes, but others may be worried that a sequel may struggle to live up to the high bar set by its predecessor. Quite simply, the sequel easily lives up to the greatness of the original, and in some ways surpasses it. What they are, simply depends on a person's perspective, some may find the domestic elements of the story more enjoyable than the superheroics and vice versa, but there's a solid balance of both which I think does it better than the first.

Rating: 8.5/10