This reminds me of a sappy early '00s song I’d much rather keep far in the back of my mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehToBz7zhqE
Oh wait!, wrong year.
I’d say it’s up for debate whether or not 2004 counts as part of the early '00s.
But it’s this song I’m talking about.
Wow, over 400 million views? I’ve never heard this song in my life.
Please stop it. This song was terrible and I used to hear it all the time.
Syndrome was the perfect villain. The more I think on it, the more the sequel doesn’t compare to the original in the slightest. But I still enjoyed it for what it is.
Funnily enough, those good sequels are the only two Pixar films I skipped on watching. I saw Cars 2, and lost interest in ever seeing another one of those, and I didn’t find the time to see Finding Dory. I’m not sure if I’d like them, though. Monsters University was not too great.
It doesn’t live up to the original because it can’t, by definition, as a sequel, given why the original was so great. It’s novelty, the cleverness of the dozen references to other movies (Bond, War of the Worlds, every super hero movie ever, 2001, just off the top of my head). The sequel was never going to live up to that because it takes place in an existing paradigm.
It’s also incredibly messy. There are a lot of conflicting character motivations and not everything really adds up. The brilliantness of the original wasn’t just novelty. If it were, we wouldn’t be talking about it after the hundreds of other superhero movies that followed. And references aren’t clever, the film examines the mid-life crisis, the role of family, etc. etc. etc. in a unique way that the sequel almost drops entirely or has little more to add.
But the sequel is still a lot of fun.