I just saw The Incredibles and it was very good!

The plot, character development and sequence of events are almost nonexistent. The ending comes way too soon, and there's no meat to keep the viewer's interest. Minimalist expressionism went out in the 20th century, and a revival of this nature isn't likely to turn heads. Sadly lacking effort.

Overall: A disappointment. 2/10

Good times, otherwise.

yay!

Anyway, release date today! I am going to try and see it this weekend if I can.

This is great. The animation is unbelievable, the voice acting is terrific (Heather Hunter and Sarah Vowell, whom I have a huge crush on, in particular.)

Definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year.

(Actually, I take that back -- the first beatdown I got was when I said "wire [the band]= snooze," but I sorta knew I was asking for it then.)

O CHARLOTTE
http://home.columbus.rr.com/paullynde/templeton.jpg

1) This is the way forward for a Nexus movie.
2) A Pixar film of Hal Clement's "A Mission of Gravity" would rock SO HARD.

That said, I thought the pursuit of Dash on the island was pretty weak. Too much Endor and too much Myst.

Everything she has done on This American Life is golden.

As for the movie, yeah. One of my new favorite superhero movies, I've decided. Very funny and very exciting, even if, as noted above, all the action sequences seemed derivative of something else, be it Lucas or Spiderman.

But this is the first Pixar movie I've actually wanted to see in the theaters, which is actually a great leap forward in expectation right there. Intellectually I understand the regard for Pixar but in terms of entertainment I've rarely felt a 'must see' urge about them, though when I've caught things here and there later they do always seem good fun (I mean, aside from casting Billy Fucking Crystal as a lead once, but oh well). Then again I'm not an Iron Giant cultist either, maybe this is a case where Bird and Pixar and all that combines perfectly for me!

It has to do with the wishes of the author of the story, who when he sold it, stipulated that it not be animated. Zemekis and pals got around this with a flimsy loophole -- it's not "animated," it's live-acted! Look! See?!

It really does look terrible, though. Unspeakably bad. I have played video games that look *way* better than that preview.

The best thing about it: In-jokes for East Bay folk!

YES! The design was astounding, and confirmed for me in the most positive possible way that modernism is back, and not as kitsch. The fonts! OMG the fonts!

xpost: Elastigirl looked like Earl Campbell from the waist down.

Did anyone else get that Winnie the Pooh preview? I'm still laughing that they're using that Spin Doctors song in it .. I guess that's to attract the soccer moms & dads - because they kind of remember that song back from before their lives were ruined by having kids.

So yeah, The Incredibles was indeed pretty incredible. It had some of the best action sequences I've seen all year. I loved Samuel Jackson as FROZONE. Also, I took my son who now claims he IS Dash, and has been running ridiculously fast ever since we left the theater.

I haven't seen this movie yet (and I want to), but, in A.O. Scott's defense, I think that when Scott's working one of his riffs, he's better than most other movie reviewers. Even when he's "wrong" (and I do think he can be wrong, sometimes very wrong), he's wrong in a way that has a really compelling and sympathetic thought process and point of view behind it, if that makes sense.

photo realistic computer animation is a long ways off, as underlined by that repellent 'Polar Express' trailer. but this movie points towards an amazing hyper-realism that I haven't seen in a pixar film yet. characters that are markedly different sizes, convincingly moving around in the same space -- it gets to your head, it involves you.

the one mom/daughter moment outside the cave was nice and I felt a little heart tug, then realized I'm staring at a 'character' whose eyes occupy almost the entire top half of her head and her nose is the size of a pea, and I FLIPPED OUT

the link to the NYT article has expired, couldn't read it, but it is there a little bit... a few lines transparently nailing in some stockpile family values lines, but it's not The Lion King or anything

Fellow superheroes Elastigirl (L), Frozone (R) and Mr. Incredible strike crimefighting poses at the Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida November 1, 2004. The characters greeted guests inside the newly reopened attraction 'The Magic of Disney Animation.'

The big-band music was a little distracting to me, but at least it was "different." Pixar is so much a cut above; there was a trailer for some DreamWorks movie about zoo animals that looked just awful.

I didn't see how the "reactionary" agenda was applicable to the real world at all, except for a few gentle little things like the remark about "rewarding mediocrity" with fourth-grade graduations, and Violet poking fun at her dad's therapy language as she takes action. The "keep the supers down" theme seemed very specific to the superhero world itself (and also to "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" and the X-Men and a bunch of other comics from the '80s [I have an issue of "Action Comics" that follows around Superman's lawyer as he tails Superman on a standard day of heroics, documenting the appropriate use of force, etc.]). Maybe I just lack the imagination to complete some icky metaphor, but I didn't see the movie as being anti-affirmative action or anything. (If anything, it seemed to reign itself in at the end - it was interesting how the family was content with Dash coming in second place, and suppressing his greatness. I thought he was going to run 23 times around the track or something.)

Plus, the supers hardly seemed like Ayn Rand types, considering that helping the weak and innocent (for Mr. Incredible and Frozone, at least) was so much in their blood, they couldn't give it up.

Couple of things:

the "oh crap" moment when the car is emerging from out of its vanishing point at escape velocity

Completely blanking on this moment for some reason -- which car where now?

Edna = my favorite character hands down. Ridiculously great.

The Watchmen observations are spot on, I suspect this is as close as we'll ever get to a Watchmen film.

I might have missed it, but no comparisons to James Bond yet on this thread? The film *screamed* Bond homage after a certain point, invoking a ton of the tropes -- the (ha-hem) 'cartoonish' death of various evil underlings, the design of the base (very VERY You Only Live Twice), the elegant dining room-in-impossible-setting, the 'female henchwoman who goes over to the good side' (though not in traditional Bond fashion, of course), the ending that's not quite THE ending, and absolutely the music. To be sure a lot of Bond-in-film's approach is a realization of comic hyperdrama so it's not a real surprise, but I think it's clearly a thread throughout.

Did anyone else like the slightly bizarre but fun Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau 'Odd Couple' cameo at the end? Really didn't expect it and I don't think it had any context but it was sure fun.

The movie is definitely an indictment of evil fanboy obsessiveness more than anything else. ;-)

I liked this a lot, especially once the action got going. It was thrilling when Violet and Dash figured out how to use their powers together. And Frozone skating through the city was just beautiful.

It did take a little while, I think, to fully fire on all fours -- that said the script and plot tended to demand slow going up for a bit. Seeing more of Frozone would have been fantastic, he was almost shoehorned into the end there but at least it happened.

And now that I think about it, while I wouldn't say you *couldn't* hide being fired from one job and then getting recruited for another one from your spouse, in a plot with a huge amount of clearly unrealistic elements *that* actually stood out as a bit grating!

Violet and the Bitchy Girls in Homeroom

Jack-Jack Discovers Poops

guess they had to go with another This American Life commentator.

TELL ME.

Watchmen comparison OTM, but it also reminded me of a comic called

Watchmen comparison OTM, but it also reminded me of a comic called Marvels that had a similar theme of exceptionalism versus the ingratitude (jadedness?) of the general populace (as manipulated by the ruling classes). The edges in this case were much more smoothed, though, making some of the faint Randism arguably more palatable. The four members of the nuclear family could be roughly comparable to the Fantastic Four, too (and how close to Silver Surfer was Frozone when he was snowboarding and speedskating around those city streets?).

Violet was indeed adorable, but the hint of creepiness was definitely of a bulimic nature, given that she could actually become invisible. I mean, how much more anorexic could she be? Likewise, Dash was quintessentially ADD/ADHD. All of which helped give it that postmodern or just simply contemporary appeal.

Yeah, this movie's a blast.

(Sorry, HTML problems)

It can. But the modernist aesthetic the movie makes use of (both in terms of visuals and in its good-thing-writ-large-equals-great-thing approach to animation and writing) is pretty soulless and I didn't find anything in the characters or plot to counteract that. So on balance it comes off as a soulless movie.

It kind of felt like I was watching an afternoon talk show filmed on a freeway overpass.

Oh, those National Review guys are so cute. I wonder what they thought of the movie's depiction of the insurance industry as corporate bloodsuckers? I mean, there's some cartoonish (ha) Objectivism there, along with the jabs at trial lawyers, but the attacks on public education seem as much in line with '60s anti-conformism as '90s Gingrichism. And the government itself is embodied by the sympathetic agent who keeps on bailing Bob out and reminds him tiredly that taxpayers are footing the bill for his outbursts. And Bob's character arc is all about him learning that he can't do things on his own, he needs other people. Politically, the movie's a nigh-on incoherent mishmash. Which is fine with me. I had a good time.

Yeah, I loved those -- made perfect sense that they didn't show them until the end of the movie, as otherwise they would have given it away. ;-)

Frozone was more a straight crib of Iceman.

Violet was indeed adorable, but the hint of creepiness was definitely of a bulimic nature, given that she could actually become invisible. I mean, how much more anorexic could she be?

Interesting take, but to be pedantic, anorexia and bulimia are separate disorders.

http://www.risingsun.net/cosplayers/elastigirl

muhfuggin' FREAK, yo!

Also, I don't think I mentioned this elsewhere, but I am sorta slightly convinced the bit where Violet and...argh, the older son's name, who I'm blanking on...run out from the tunnel and jump away towards the camera, followed by lava suddenly flooding out, is a *very* quick but specific homage to the scene in Return of the King where Frodo and Sam do the same while fleeing from Mt. Doom. Then again I could be on crack.

Just saw this on blu-ray and while it was pretty good after a while I couldn't stand Holly Hunter's shpeech impediment anymore. (not the drawl, her s that shoundsh like sh all the time - hash she ever been in a movie with Sean Connery?)

mum is HOT in this

Mirage is pretty hottt as well

can i have some simpsons porn

So anyway.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/we-ve-seen-the-power-packed-first-footage-from-the-incr-1796939620

Talks one isolated scene shown in particular but the key points:

* Starts immediately where the first film left off with the Underminer.

* "will largely focus on Elastigirl, leaving Mr. Incredible at home to watch Jack-Jack."

Updates updates updates:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/one-of-these-new-incredibles-2-characters-is-totally-th-1822303947

New characters per Disney PR stuff and who plays them:

WINSTON DEAVOR (voice of Bob Odenkirk) leads a world-class telecommunications company alongside his genius sister, Evelyn. Ultra-wealthy, savvy and suave, Winston goes big in everything he does—including his infatuation with Supers. He has been a supporter of Supers returning—all he needs is a hero (or three) to help him change public perception and bring them back into the sunlight.

EVELYN DEAVOR (voice of Catherine Keener), the brilliant brainchild behind her brother Winston’s telecommunications company, knows her way around tech. She loves tinkering with tech, and has never met a problem she can’t solve.

VOYD (voice of Sophia Bush) is a young, overeager “wannabe” Super and a mega-fan of Elastigirl. Her superpower is the ability to divert and manipulate objects around her by creating voids that allow the objects to appear and disappear, and shift in space.

The Supers find an advocate in a dignified foreign AMBASSADOR (voice of Isabella Rossellini) who is committed to the support and legalization of Superheroes.

And tickets for II on sale etc.

Dear critics who are chagrinned by the upcoming Pixar film The Incredibles 2, may I suggest using one of the following in your review:

The Uncredibles
The Inedibles
The In-crud-ibles
The Incredibles...At Actually Being Terrible

And sequel seen. Totally great, unsurprisingly. Plays around with a slew of the same themes but feels like a natural progression nonetheless, and otherwise you got your perfect 60s/Bond/Mission Impossible/etc pastiche on lock once again, set pieces galore, Edna Mode rules all.

Ned what was the last major sequel you thought sucked, just so I can calibrate expectations here

I saw The Incredibles and Incredibles 2 in a double feature last night. Incredibles 2 is much better.

“Evelyn Deavor”

oh man i'm looking forward to this

Yeah I might have to go with Silby here.

I thought this was OK, mostly, and at times disappointing. I liked the creativity of the set pieces, even if they were almost all built around runaway vehicles hurtling toward their doom, but other aspects I found very lazy. Maybe my biggest disappointment was in its apparent lack of self awareness, given the cliches and predictable stuff. The first one is not my favorite Pixar, but I like it better. Clearer theme. This one was all over the place.

That weird short cartoon, though, What the fuck?! The dude next to me leaped up in his chair and exclaimed "Well, that went dark pretty fast!"

Idk what’s the theme of the first one, tort reform?

Wait what’s not to get about the short?

does she just miss her grown son? to the point of tears? the reaction in our theater came to her eating the bao child.

theme of the first one if I recall correctly was one of identity, I am a superhero, that is who I am, if you take that away, what am I?

the theme of the first one was if you are great you are born to it, and if you are not born to it but you aspire to greatness, then you are a creep and a pretender , iirc

You know what else kind of irked me about this one, besides the tedium of watching them first stop a runway drill, then later a runway train, then later a runaway boat? (Again, with no self-awareness - which would have been funny). Clearly Jack-Jack is the crowdpleaser character, but the baby was already the subject of a Pixar short, so not only did we already know the baby had powers, we already knew the baby had a huge range of powers. And yet that's played as a punchline reveal again and again and again in this. "Wait, Jack Jack has powers!?" Dad doesn't know, mom doesn't know, the siblings don't know, Edith doesn't know, Frozone doesn't know, the villain doesn't know ... They should have just found a way to make the movie about the baby. At the least baby vs. raccoon would have made a great short.

this seems like...an oversight

for anyone watching the Incredibles 2!! pic.twitter.com/HuIS1A6qc6

— valentine (@METlCHE) June 15, 2018

interesting. I do know that every time I see a concert these days most the time they have a notice posted if there are strobe lights involved, for that very reason.

I thought this one was not as good as the first probably slightly, but still pretty fun (esp. the raccoon sequence) and I could kind of watch these characters do anything.

Short OTOH featured someone in the audience out loud saying "What the fuck??!?!" I mean okay the theme at the end is fine (had my wife in tears) but what a weird/dark turn.

And yeah it's a short sequence I could see it being problematic. Definitely got the full warning at A Place To Bury Strangers earlier this week so yah weird oversight.

Nobody told me this was the fucking animated adventures of Better call Saul

Ermantrout sounds like he’s on the verge of death

I’m taking kids to this later in the week. How nervous should I be about the opening short?

(the kids are 5 and 8, btw)

Arrive 30 minutes past the starting time and miss nothing.

Fuck John Lassiter, fuck the Opening short. No one gives a shit about your fucking clever crap. There were audible groans in the theatre today that echoed my sentiments.

The theatre I saw this in had a warning up in the lobby

About strobing, or about the short?

There's no way the short gets a warning, as fucked up and weird as it is. I bet we're talking about the strobing.

More I think about this movie, less I like it. Just kind of a predictable mess, albeit a ... highly competent mess? Would have been satisfied with Jack-Jack v. raccoon standalone short.

there was a note about the strobing.

the short: it's just a metaphor. I agree that moment was ... shocking but also funny? yeesh you guys.

She missed her son, so she imagined a life with a bun-son ... and then eats him, the relationship ending (metaphorically) the same way as her relationship with her real son? I guess what makes it awkward/confusing is that her real son still looks like a bun-son, and also that we never find out what left them estranged. Might have needed a beat at the beginning to establish her son was MIA.

Maybe I missed it. I miss a lot. Like the plan/motive of the villain in "The Incredibles 2."

jesus calsters why did you even see this movie?

i don't believe it was that she missed her son. you see the life of the son growing up with him as a dumpling because that's how she perceived him. the 'eating' him moment was just the point where her over-protectiveness reaches it's peak.

So why were they estranged? I almost got the impression that it was because he brought home a westerner! They make a point of showing them bonding at the end, when the son makes messy bao and his wife makes perfect bao.

Anyway, I didn't like it. And the eating was a fucked up metaphor made more fucked up by the fact that the actual son looked exactly like a bun. Would have been better if the bun-son left and the short flashed back to her at the table, staring at the suddenly mundane bun, then sadly eating it. Then the husband seeing her sad and making a phone call and the *real* son showing up to comfort his sad mom. Something like that. The way it is, too jarring and weird and unnecessarily elliptical. Imo. Obviously my audience was not the only one that reacted in horror.

having seen Dementia 13 three days earlier, I enjoyed the "Dementia 113" joke.

Apparently the 113 is a reference to a classroom in the California Institute of the Arts? Apparently there are lots of references to "113" in this and other animated shows and movies.

A-113 is the like classic Pixar Easter egg yes.

OK really who cares about Bao, because the main attraction is GREBT. Unfortunately, noticeably unwoke, too.

Better than the Randian sociopathy of the first one!

can't believe a Pixar movie is unwoke

First one isn't fully fleshed objectivism, though, as it characterizes private corporations as inclined to evil (Syndrome, Bob's insurance company) and the government as sympathetic (the G-man who's a decent guy just doing his job). That said, I can buy that Bird probably has inchoate views that veer toward social Darwinism.

It's not about them being coherent Randians, just having general shitty instincts

Lisp of adult elastic girl was so grating

can't tell if that is a joke or not.

Not

That's just how Holly Hunter talks.

She has been appearing in successful, internationally-distributed films for 30 years, and also played "adult Elasti-Girl" in The Incredibles.

Ha, I thought he was talking about Sarah Vowell, who has one of the most famous funny-sounding/annoying voices.

Was it a joke someone made here? Anyway. Someone noted that Holly Hunter's two most famous roles are now for one where she appears and does not talk and one where she talks but does not appear.

I didn't love the first Incredibles, but I'm tentatively excited about this one because - is this the first Pixar movie in 10 years that won't make me bawl like a shithead?

I fucking love a good cry but Pixar movies make me nervous now because I'm always waiting for *that* scene

Not including Cars because I don't count them in my Pixar mind-canon

I sincerely hope this one does not make you cry. It's totally goofy.

You will cry tears of laughter.

Tears of indifference.

Tears of remonstration.

At least Toy story had a shining reference

Does the first movie have as many obvious '60s signifiers as the sequel does? My memory of it placed it as contemporary.

Yeah, a slew of 'em.

So this was the Cineworld's secret screening number 8 (most of the theatre cheered, I was just happy as it could have been a lot worse) and ya silby the nominative determinism ruined this a little on watching. Still I laughed a fair few times.

Didn't really think anyone needed the Guy Fierri biog that was Bao.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/voyd-from-incredibles-2-looks-like-kristen-stewart-2018-6

Man! I thought this to the point where I convinced myself she was actually the model for the character. Even the mannerisms seemed v awkward Stewart-esque.

Voyd's a good character with a good haircut

she didn't look or act anything like kristen stewart, people just make shit up

just like how anthony lane’s review of this sounds like he woke up from a sex nightmare

this is off topic but how the hell did Anthony Lane get his job

That makes me want to read his review (and then hate myself for doing so). xp

prescient post

OTM. Has Anthony Lane weighted in yet?
― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I think Lane is funny, though I frequently get the sense that the jokes come before the review.

there's a whole separate department in the New Yorker for jokes

That review is just Lane being Lane - I don't get the tizz at all. It's just basic seaside smut.

true i guess he is always exactly that bad

i've read worse erotic incredibles fanfiction, but i'm not sure the new yorker is the proper venue for it

Finally looked up the hubbub, and ... don't care. But it did ring a bell that Lane sexualized her in his review of the first movie as well:

Years ago, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes—Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. He was mostly knuckles and chin, whereas she was as limber as it is possible to be without consulting the Kama Sutra.

Wow the Kama Sutra what a quip “Anthony Lane”

Loved this: http://joshholtsclaw.com/blog/2018/3/5/the-graphic-art-of-incredibles-2

when Screen Slaver had their jump scare reveal, someone in the theatre got so scared they ripped a fart and the entire audience started laughing. ruined the moment a lil.

something something fascism Rand

that’s what happens when you eat beans

everybody farts, which is just another way of saying nobody does