Review - The Incredibles

The Incredibles… I came into this movie well-educated that it is a dialogue-heavy movie. I’m actually glad I read and watched the reviews first. I’d have been pissed if I actually spent money on this movie in the theater or rented it from an actual establishment. Luckily, I got it from Netflix, so it wasn’t so bad.

I like super hero movies to an extent, especially spoofs. I love things like The Tick and Megamind. In fact, I REALLY liked Megamind...but I digress. The Incredibles is about a family of superheroes living in some protection, like witness protection, to conceal their identities, since supers have gone into hiding.

This story…it’s complicated to really explain how I feel about it. The Parr family is just so boring and bland. There’s nothing really impressive about them to me. Dash is a jerk of a kid, but, in his defense, I can feel his frustrations too. He has all this potential and can’t utilize any of it. Violet though…what’s her deal? She was very poorly developed and simply sat there in an emo slump for pretty much the ENTIRE movie until the final third. She wasn’t interesting and I just couldn’t feel any sort of pity or sympathy for her the way I could for Dash. It was as if the production team threw her in and forgot to actually do anything with her. She likes a boy and is too shy to face him. Big…friggin…whoop. Boring.

This family was just…a family. While I admire the fact that the movie wanted something as “realistic” as possible, it was just a little too ordinary to the point of boring. This movie was boring. There was an interesting concept, and I did watch it all the way through. There were some amusing parts, but most of it was just dull. Then you have Jack Jack…and, okay, he was pretty cool, but that’s all I’m going to say about him.

You want to know who I wanted to follow? Frozone. That character was charismatic and funny. Heck, his wife was funny too, and you never even see her! That would have been a funnier family to watch.

So, is there any redeeming quality? Sure. Frozone aside, Syndrome was actually a pretty good villain. I liked his back story. He was a bit excessive, I think, but that kinda fits the entirety of his character. He was really smart and he really seemed interesting. He was a real threat, though the end rather cheapened the whole thing. I liked how he actually used what he knew and admired about super heroes to actually use those virtues against them.

Aside from Syndrome as an actually interesting and seriously sadistic and twisted villain, my favorite character is actually Edna. She is just so out there and her personality is hilarious in contrast to the normal behavior of the other characters. Granted, we don’t see much of her in the movie, but what little we do see really makes an impression.

The story is a good concept and there are definitely things done well in this movie. However, overall, I think I could have easily skipped this movie. I wouldn’t watch it again simply because it was just too dull and the characters we’re supposed to enjoy just weren’t that enjoyable. It didn’t feel like a movie for kids and didn’t feel like an enjoyable family film either. It felt like a movie meant for adults. It was dialogue-heavy, a lot of the concepts seemed a bit complex, while others were just entirely too bland. It just felt like it catered to the general knowledge of the adult mind rather than the imagination of a child’s mind. Being an adult…it didn’t even impress that part of my mind. Crime shows on network television are more exciting than this movie.

I heard that a sequel is coming out. Despite my dislike for this movie, I would consider watching the sequel. Maybe Jack Jack will be a character that can interact. By the end of this movie, the annoying blandness that plagued the Parr Family actually does show signs of subsiding. Violet isn’t an emo loser, Dash actually has an outlet for his pent up energy, the parents seem happier… So, at least that’s a nice setup for a sequel. Perhaps it’ll be better and actually have a little more life than this one.

If you want to see it, eh, it’s a nice idea. I think, personally, it can easily be skipped. Personally, I liked Megamind much better.