Seeing how CGI animated movies have become a yearly norm you would expect that marveling at animation techniques would sooner or later become an afterthought. Whether unfortunate or fortunate that just isn’t true, as The Incredibles is one more example of Pixar’s masterful work at bring computer generated characters and environments to life, in such a way that you can only say, “That is amazing!”
Animation aside, The Incredibles is unexpectedly slow for about the first hour, although it does make up for it with an action packed act three.
As for storyline, The Incredibles introduces us to a world where superheroes are the norm and have become part of everyday life, but suddenly, thanks to several lawsuits aimed at the supers they are forced to go into a protection program of sorts forcing them to integrate into mainstream society.
Seeing how having superhuman powers isn’t always that easy to hide, on top of the tendency to want to save people’s lives, Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, is having a hard time settling in to his new lifestyle. Married to another ex-hero Helen Parr, formerly known as Elastigirl, they live their lives with their three children, who of course also have super powers.
In the midst of coming to grips with his current situation Bob is offered a chance to work for a mystery man, who knows of Bob’s “super” past, and asks for Bob’s help battling some robots that have gotten loose on a tropical island. Little does Bob know he is only strengthening the robots for the evil mastermind, whose devious plan finds Bob imprisoned with only his family to save him.
Whew… that is a lot of info. As for the movie itself, like I said, it is a bit slow, which may hurt children’s chances at sitting still during some long moments of dialogue. It should also be noted that The Incredibles is rated PG and not the normal G as most movies of this sort usually are, which does make for some things to look out for.
What comes with this rating are scenes where the bad guys crash and are presumed dead, an attempted suicide, a mother telling her kids that the bad guys are trying to kill them, kidnapping and the such. That said, this isn’t altogether a movie for kids that might have a problem with cartoon violence, but I will leave that decision up to the parents.
As for entertainment, the laughs are there, they are few and far between and a little dry at times, but they are there. But this movie is beyond laughs, this is more of an action flick and the ending of is what makes it worthwhile, without it The Incredibles would be a bore. Scenes of dialogue and downtrodden superheroes turned civilians give the opening of the film a dark feel, but the action at the end gives it its pep.
More of an action than a comedy, The Incredibles, are visually stunning but you are going to have to wait until the end to get your money’s worth.
