'Incredibles 2'

“I’m just the genius behind the genius," a line said halfway through the movie by Evelyn Deavor to Elastigirl. At this moment I knew exactly who the “mysterious” villain was and what her motive was.

The Incredibles 2 is written and directed by Brad Bird. He has also directed The Incredibles, Tomorrowland, and The Iron Giant. I think he’s a great director and wonderful storyteller. I have watched The Iron Giant roughly 40 times and I still cry at the end when the Iron Giant sacrifices himself, gearing the main character’s voice to tell him, “You are who you choose to be.” The problem with The Incredibles 2 was the story.

The story opens with a teen boy being questioned about the Underminer incident from the end of The Incredibles. The heroes stop his drill from crushing city hall, but the Underminer was able to escape and the heroes were arrested since “supers” are still illegal. The only hero to escape was Frozone who was picked up by a rich man named Winston Deavor. After the teen tells what he sees, he has his memory wiped, including his memory of their teen daughter, Violet, who he was supposed to go on a date with.

Winston convinces Frozone to get Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl to meet with Winston and his sister Evelyn. In the meeting, they tell how after the supers were outlawed, their parents had a break in and their dad tried calling two supers, but the parents were shot and died. Evelyn says that instead of calling, they should’ve just went to the panic room. Winston wants to pass a global law bringing back supers, showing their decision-making when they are in action, instead of just what the media shows. They want Elastigirl to be the first to come back with the camera.

With Elastigirl back in action, Mr. Incredible is stuck at home watching the kids. Violet is stood up for her date and when she asks the boy at school, he acts like he doesn’t remember her, which he doesn’t thanks to Mr. Incredible having his memory erased during the opening. The majority of Mr. Incredible’s story is focused on him trying to fix the situation and dealing with Jack-Jack’s new powers, that which he has a lot of.

Elastigirl’s first mission is to stop a runaway high-speed train that is on a collision course. She manages to stop the train and there is a message welcoming her from the Screenslaver. Winston sets up a television interview for her to tell the world that supers are here to do good. During the interview, the TV host becomes hypnotized and so does everyone watching. Elastigirl then has to race to save an ambassador from Screenslaver crashing her helicopter.

After the rescue, Elastigirl gets Evelyn to make a device to track the Screenslaver. The device works and Elastigirl tracks down and captures the Screenslaver. This is when she realizes that the guy she captured isn’t the real Screenslaver, just another hypnotized victim, and that Evelyn is behind it. Evelyn reveals that she doesn’t want the supers back and that if her father would’ve gone to the panic room her parents would still be alive. So she’s going to use the supers to cause a catastrophe that will ruin their reputation forever.

Evelyn uses Elastigirl to put hypnosis goggles onto Mr. Incredible and sends some other supers to get the kids. Luckily, Frozone shows up to protect them, but he has goggles placed onto him in the process. The hypnotized supers highjack the boat and aim it to crash into the city. The children manage to get to the boat using the old Incredible car and begin removing the goggles from the other supers. Elastigirl goes after Evelyn, who is escaping by plane while Frozone and Mr. Incredible attempt to stop the boat from crashing into the city.

The movie ends with Evelyn being caught and the boat being saved. Violet goes on her date with the boy from the beginning and her whole family.

As a whole, this movie doesn’t match the greatness of the first. The villain in the first had great motive behind his action. If he made everyone super, no one would be. The villain in this one was just angry that her parents died when they thought the supers would be there to save them, so she hated supers. So the whole thing is about revenge, which the first one was also about, but it had a great message within it: Not everyone is special in the same way.

Dash was a big part of the first movie, but in this one he is used only for comic relief, barely being in the movie. This could be because they waited too long to make the sequel and the actor who originally played him was recasted so they didn’t want it to be to noticeable, but I noticed right away.

Overall, it’s still a fun movie that I enjoyed. I just won’t watch it the same way I do the first Incredibles and The Iron Giant.