The Incredibles 2 is one half of a pretty good movie and one half of a really awful one. Everything about the Parrs’ home life is on par (no pun intended) with the first film. The actual superhero business Helen gets involved in initially shows promise but rapidly spirals out of control.
The villain is terrible on every level, and upon seeing the deleted scenes, it becomes incredibly obvious their motivation (which is only ever brought up in a single monologue) is a leftover from an earlier draft where there was an angle of filming Elastigirl’s crimefighting to broadcast as entertainment. With that angle lost, Screenslaver’s rant about people only wanting superheroes as escapism feels completely out of left field and is forgotten just as soon as it’s established. Speaking of Screenslaver, that cool design that reminds me a lot of the Paul Dano Riddler is only used once in the film, as is the entire persona of a sort of soft-spoken ninja is immediately discarded. If we had that Screenslaver for the rest of the movie it would be much better. But no, we get a twist reveal that you can see coming the minute the culprit is introduced (not to mention there’s literally only two characters introduced who it realistically could be), which is completely worthless, and then the finale has the villain out of costume and just generally being boring.Oh and the fact that Elastigirl didn’t immediately figure out they had the wrong guy when the film so blatantly telegraphs it was painful to watch.
Unlike the first film, there were actually a couple deleted scenes I think shouldn’t have been cut, namely the restaurant holdup (I get that it doesn’t contribute to the plot, but it’s a fun scene, and the kids were otherwise underutilized so I loved seeing them shine) and Edna’s security breach (having her hacked by Screenslaver would’ve been a great way to tie Helen’s plotline to Bob’s).
Oh and Schaffrillas is right about the newly introduced superheroes: their designs are awful.
Overall, I’d say the only thing this movie is is incredibly disappointing. The first one is a masterclass in storytelling that should be taught in universities around the world. The second is something to keep the kids quiet for two hours.
Damn, I think that was more than a few sentences.