Movie Review - The Incredibles 11/11/2004
As promised, here are my thoughts on this movie. First, and not to anyone’s surprise, it was a lot of fun. The animation was excellent, the characters interesting - especially for super-heroes - and the plot was much more developed than I had expected. All of that said, I still felt a tad disappointed. I’m not sure I could nail down why. Most likely it simply has to do with expectations. Whenever my expectations are raised, I almost always feel a bit let down. The exceptions to this rule have been the Matrix movies (though it must be acknowledged that the 2nd and third never did live up to the complexity or depth of the original) and the Lord of the Rings movies, and I had the highest expectations for those than I’ve ever had for any movie.
I think largely I was just not quite prepared for the volume of action and suspense. I know that sounds silly since it was animated, but much of it moved at the same pace as the X-Men or Spider-Man movies. There was lots of chasing, fighting, dodging, flying, etc. I had it in my head that this was going to be fun and relaxing. It was fun, but not so relaxing, and I was pretty tired when it was over. None of this is necessarily a bad thing, as I actually enjoy a good action flick. I think I just wasn’t expecting it with this being a Pixar movie. I expected something a little more entertaining and a little less frenetic. I will grant, though, upon reflection, that Finding Nemo had a fairly fast pace as well.
The other minor issue I had was the lack of the trailer scenes in the actual movie. The hysterical trailer scene from well over a year ago where Mr. Incredible is trying to fit himself into his old suit is actually not in the movie. I had presumed that they were showing us in the trailer a small portion of a longer, even funnier scene. Not so, it was just to get us in the door, and that bothers me a bit. All in all, I would be lying to say I didn’t have a good time. I did, and I do recommend that people see the movie, but it just didn’t capture me like some of their other movies have.
I thoroughly enjoyed the short they showed just prior to the movie called “Boundin’”. Very cute!
Pixar is an amazing company, and I’ve made a point of seeing all of their movies thus far. The next one (and the last under the Disney umbrella), Cars, doesn’t look at all interesting, though. Hopefully, they’ll do something to make it more appealing between now and its release next year.
Things I liked about this movie:
- family values, conflict & resolution, being true to who you are.
Things I didn’t like about this movie:
- the red devil image applied to the little one - the rage. Is he supposed to “live up” to that image of who he is? So, even though it was presented as an anomaly, and therefore funny, I had a problem with it.
Overall, I liked this movie! The short, “Boundin’” I think was very appropriate for even young children, and lots of fun.
Would I go see it again? — sure, but more likely I would buy it and watch it at home. Somewhere in there is a financial break-point… will I watch the movie enough to warrant buying it as opposed to paying to see it in the theatre?
Nancy - I agree on the family values thing. It was great to see the kids become who they were meant to be. I, too, thought the baby thing at the end was sort of freaky. Not quite sure what his “special powers” are. Does anyone know if there is talk of a sequel?