The Incredibles Two
The ups the downs and the turns that leave you with lackluster.
Have you ever looked at Khan Academy? A free site that helps you achieve better at a subject you may not be good at. There is one particular fact about the site that I enjoyed. It brought a direct learning ability for how pixar develops their stories and why these stories geared for children has such a profound effect on adults.
Being brought through the way Pixar and Disney do storytelling is truly a gift until you see a movie that you had high expectations for fall flat. As you can tell from my title this is a extensive review about the good, the bad, and the gray areas of the Incredibles two. This is my opinion on the take of the movie while utilizing their own structure for storytelling.
“The power of story is that it has an ability to connect with people on an emotional level.” -Pixar
Theme
Every theme has a time and a place. You can’t just throw a theme out to a crowd and hope it pleases them. Its a lot like playing a guessing game but you need to know what society needs at that particular moment. The what if game comes in handy here and is taught by pixar in their lessons on Khan Academy.
What if questions center around our imagination and grasp our attention to ideas that can be answered if we only explore them. Which means what if questions are what theme is built on. No theme has ever been built without a question at hand including Harry Potter. How does an orphan boy find his home?
A theme in a movie must be relevant for the time it releases in. Hence, The Lion King and the current hit Wall-E. You can gather both movies ask a personal question about our human psyche. Thus, movies need to be able to show society what they desire the most at the time. Or rather what needs to be shined to light for the audiences to gain something from.
It’s a lot like publishing a book without understanding what is popular among your audience that the pages are geared for. The blind leading the bind happens all the time. But Pixar is in no way a blind business. Which means any movie the company releases comes with high expectations. We are consistently proved that Pixar has what it takes to keep surprising us. Until now, I have not been upset with a movie including Cars. But after recently visiting the theaters for The Incredibles Two- I find myself disappointed with the current movie.
The Incredibles two comes out about nine years too late for it’s diversive message to stand out. Too late in the technology age makes the question about What if society becomes slaves to the screen? A true back water idea. Its lost on the new age audience as the children now have grown up locked into their phones. A message to the people “ Stay off your phone, or don’t be a slave to technology’s whims” comes a little too late. Not a shocker. Especially right now. I mean Ralph wrecks the internet is coming out and the premises holds the same idea.
Naturally, movies make it a premise to battle one another out in theaters but with how society stands now movies need to do more than just have a great theme. They need to deliver an impact. Sadly, the incredibles two does not bring forth the flame of greatness that the first one had.
Longevity
We are familiar with the characters of the movie but some of the audience is not because pixar took its time trying to create a movie that felt like it was only in production for a year. In fourteen years people grow, people change, and the audience in effect grows and changes. Of course true fans of The Incredibles will bring their family, and friends. But even with the power of us old fans there is only so much a movie like that can do.
First we see a clear division in gender role changes as Elastic Girl a mother of three children gets a job while Mr. Incredible ends up taking care of the children. Great job acknowledging the way society is leaning and making a point that women no longer have to stay at home to clean the house. Brilliant work but not a bit surprised that the family would develop that way. What we needed here was a sudden fight between the two. Not a subtle fight but one where the pair actually splits because families don’t always resolve their problems and if we wanted to see a real conflict it should of been within the family not from outside.
I guarantee that would of shed tears. While walking out of the theater my boyfriend/ roommate/ lover told me “ I could of wrote that story better than what they did.” Sadly, I bet he could of. When a person walks out of a theater with that kind of attitude we know the movie is progressing to a B-line.
Who is the villain this time? A person who hides herself as a hero called Screen-slaver. No surprise there. Not even remotely considering in the first scene we see her in she is dressed like trouble and make that double. While Elastic girl tries to make heroes legal again there is screen-slaver who holds a grudge and is trying to stop this. Hmm….sounds an awful lot like Avengers civil war to me..
We waited fourteen years for a cartoon story-line similar to the Avengers? Ugh..right?
Anyways, next we get introduced to the youngest member of The Incredibles. Jack Jack. I think my favorite moment is Jack Jack fighting a raccoon. Maybe I’m wrong but Jack Jack has a lot better impact on us then the entire bland story-line. Let me put it this way- Jack Jack expresses the idea that we can grow up to be whoever we want to be by hosting an assortment of powers.
So what I perceived to be a movie worth the wait became a movie with some humor mixed with a lackluster feeling by the end. I’m not holding my breathe for a third movie either…
