The Incredibles 2 (2018)

  Y'all.  This was so disappointing.

I mean, there's no real way this could have lived up to the expectations people had for it.  And it is a fun, family-friendly film.  But it is not a worthy successor.

After The Incredibles are revealed to the world in their attempt to stop The Underminer (John Ratzenberger), it seems that they will be outlaws forever.  But a brother-sister pair of venture capitalists, Win (Bob Odenkirk) and Evelyn Deavor (Caroline Keener) step in with a plan to rehabilitate supers in the eyes of the public. They choose Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) as the face of their campaign, outfitting her with new gear and a tiny camera to capture all the heroic moments to be live-streamed to the public.  Meanwhile, Bob (Craig T. Nelson), swallows his wounded pride at not being chosen and devotes himself to being a dad so Helen can be the hero and face off against the Screen Slaver, who uses the phone and TV screen surrounding people to hypnotize them.

That all sounds pretty good.  But it is totally empty.  There are plot threads that could have been cool that are just not explored at all.  The villain identity reveal is so obvious I thought for sure it had to be a decoy.  Like, Pixar did not make me wait 14 years just to hand me the laziest regurgitation of a plot trope.  This just had nothing to say.  No deep insight to a character's psyche, no revelation of understanding or sudden empathy for the villain, nothing.  Is it good fan service?  Sure.  Is it beautifully animated with the same aesthetic as the original?  Absolutely.  Is it a shining example of Pixar's dedication to putting the story before the money?  No.  It's not even as good as Finding Dory.  And that's a damn shame.

It's not all bad news.  Even the worst Pixar movie is better than most other animated films.  Jack-Jack's exploration of his powers is a total delight, as well as the scene-stealing raccoon.  The movie works best when it focuses on Violet and Dash coping without parental supervision but there's unfortunately not enough of that to go around.