Summary:
Superheros are no longer helping to save the day after large groups of people decide to sue them for injuries while getting their lives saved. The government helped throw all superheros into a Witness Protection Program, and have been barred from doing their superhero duties.
After fifteen years, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), aka Mr. Incredible is stuck in a pansy office job selling insurance, and secretly saves lives with his best friend Lucious Best (Samuel L. Jackson), aka Frozone at night just to satiate his inner desire to do good.
But soon, outside forces cause Mr. Incredible, his wife Helen/Elastigirl (Helen Hunt) and his superhero capable family to go into action once more.
My Thoughts
After sitting through 20 stinking minutes of hell-ridden previews and a thoroughly disappointing pre-movie cartoon short, I was not really in the mood to do anything but walk out and call it a night. I was in a bad mood! Fortunately, I stayed. And I had a blast!
Pixar has managed to top itself once again, and has made their best feature yet. The animation is smooth, gorgeous and colorful. I love the concept of Superheros in every day life, struggling to subdue their preternatural insticts of providing justice in the world. We also get some hilarious family quabbles, but of course it’s ultimately up to the family to help come together to form a Super Team to save the day!
I loved seeing Bob stuck in his office cubicle, a huge, overweight and depressed nobody that comes home at night in his tiny little family car with a look of complete defeat. As you see him drive up onto the driveway, you think “Look what he’s reduced to”, haha! But at the same time, he’s so much bigger than he was 15 years ago, that it’s almost an oxymoron saying he’s been ‘reduced’!
I had a good many laughs along the way, with many small moments such as the ejector seat bit with the kid near the beginning… and how he landed on his head and acted like nothing happened! Hilarious! Once Bob goes to Edna Mone (writer/director Brad Bird) for a new super-suit, we get even more laughs and hearty surprises thrown our way.
This is the longest Pixar flick, running 1 hour and 50 minutes, but I didn’t feel that it kept me from being entertained at any point. Some may complain of overlength, and that’s understandable, but I was enjoying myself too much to care. Once the last half kicks in, Jason Lee exposes his awesomeness in the form of Syndrome and the family joins up to form an ultimate superteam that rivals most action movies of ANY summer of ANY year! I loved the action in this movie! It was fantastic! They use their abilities to the utmost, and we also get some great ‘sneaking into the complex’ sequences that make
humorous nods to any number of games that require you to sneak into a facility.
Aw, well, what more can I say? I loved this movie, even more than I was expecting. I only wish that more movies could be half as good as this, and that Michael Bay would be inspired after seeing this and think, “Holy hell. Now that’s the way to do an action scene! Man, I suck!” and then decide to refrain from further suckage and never make another movie again. Or something. Oh, nevermind, forget I said that.
If you’re a fan of superheros in general, I don’t see how you couldn’t get a huge kick out of watching this.
Well, anyways, this movie is 'incredible'. Bah-dump-bump-bump.
Grade: A
Reviewed: 11/8/04