The Incredibles 2 - Stretched a bit too thin

I absolutely love The Incredibles, so much that it currently stands as one of my top 5 animated films of all time. The film boasts a strong message, well-defined characters with outstanding performance, tight pacing, a fantastic modern art design based on the 60's style future aesthetic, downright creative and thrilling action scenes, and one of the most memorable film scores of the last 20 years. It was also especially welcome in the early 2000's when "superhero films" and "good" charted a solid river's length in distance, unless your name was Spiderman...or possibly Blade. The Incredibles 2 is something I've been waiting a long time for, which speaks volumes since I normally don't advocate sequels to films that feel "finished".

And now, it's in theaters, I saw it, and my verdict is...I'm still waiting to actually see it. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what I saw.

The characters are still well-defined, and the new film allows most of them to develop in some cool new directions. The first story had a powerful message about cherishing individuality and staying true to your core values, this one takes a side route and has something to say about cherishing agency and doing your part to allow for more freedom and affirmation. The overall plot structure is...still basically the same as the last movie, but with an altered arrangement that allows for new character dynamics. The action is still intense and creative, the aesthetic remains largely the same but further explored, the animation (especially the character performances) show lots of care and attention to detail, and the score continues to strike with the force of a jackhammer.  Every single part of this movie is either good, or deservedly incredible. So what's wrong?

Well, I did forget to mention the pacing, and I have to say it's problematic. In fact, the pacing's issues go on to reveal a whole separate issue that really plagues The Incredibles 2 overall: a severe lack of focus.

The original film seems to have a similar problem on paper: you have to balance out Bob's struggles with civilian life and forced mediocrity, Helen's suspicions and encouragements, Dash's lack of a competitive outlet, Violet's lack of confidence and inability to handle social situations, and the aspirations of the villainous Syndrome to become "the last super". It's a lot to juggle on paper, but The Incredibles makes it work by choosing one of these issues to be the primary conflict, and building the rest of the narrative around it. In this case, the entire film largely focuses on Bob Parr, making him both the centerpiece and perspective by which roughly 80% of the film works. The rest of the conflicts split the last 20% on small individual moments, but largely succeed by blending themselves with Bob's struggles. It's a bit of a chaotic arrangement, but Brad Bird got his ideas across by using Bob as the focal lens for all the other ideas to filter through.

With The Incredibles 2, we have a similar arrangement of pieces: Helen gets a new job, Bob needs to learn to be a stay-at-home father, Violet has relationship issues, Dash is having trouble in school, Jack-Jack has powers now, and new villain "Screenslaver" has aspirations to "remove all agency from supers". And for the most part, the film does a half-decent job balancing out most of the micro: none of the children's events are really developed to a meaningful degree, but the film at least understands that they serve as a way to further develop Bob in a new direction. But then the film makes a somewhat heinous misstep with the macro by failing to ask a crucial question: "Who is the main character?"

I'm really inclined to say it's Helen; the direction of the story encourages Helen to rise to the occasion and put her principles to the test, all while supplying a villain that mostly works as a good foil for her. That story also encourages Bob to be more of a sidekick, in which his new arc becomes "learning how to relinquish power, and be fully supportive while doing it." On the other hand, the movie mostly wants me to think that it's still Bob, especially since he's left to juggle all the remaining conflicts and a majority of the film is focused on his secondary endeavors with the rest of the family. It's also made apparent that Bob is the main since he's the character that undergoes the most prominent change, and even the arc/growth of Helen is largely based on Bob's ability to "let her be the hero".

The worst part? I don't actually know what the correct answer here should've been. Between focusing on Helen or Bob, you have two films that both sound absolutely fantastic. The Helen focus leaves you with an overall stronger narrative with a more traditional structure, combined with a few interesting ideas through the villain and a lot of room to push those ideas. The Bob focus leaves you with a decidedly unique film with more roots in humor and social commentary about the nuclear family, at the cost of having an overly floaty story without much direction. What we have instead is a film that tries to have everything, and that non-decision results in a story that felt lobotomized and an experience that felt far hollower than it should've. In an effort to be flexible, The Incredibles 2 is stretched a bit too thin.

I still really enjoyed The Incredibles 2 and I hope to watch it again some day, especially so I can dig deeper into the successes and failings of its execution, but the impression it left was far from incredible.