The Incredibles (2004) gets just about all the big things right. Empathetic, well thought-out characters, some charmingly eccentric, a plot which fleshes out their world while advancing briskly, and injections of the less heroic elements into the story which leavens it with some much needed humor. It’s in some of the small details that it annoyingly falls apart, and the details do matter.
It opens with a world which, much like The Watchmen (2009), has banned the activities usually associated with superheroes. Mr. Incredible has married Elastigirl, and they have three kids, infant Jack, speedy Dash, and Violet, who can generate force fields. But Mr. Incredible, in his civilian identity, is slowly dying of boredom and frustration at his job at a somewhat shady insurance company, and his occasional forays into anonymous heroics isn’t really enough. When he’s fired for abusing his boss, mysterious Mirage contacts him about a “job”.
Mr. Incredible clashes with his wife over his yearnings to be a superhero again, so he doesn’t mention his change in vocation. He simply leaves to take care of a rogue robot, and then returns with a big paycheck. Realizing he may be hired again, his job is now to work out and shape up, his former muscles having gone somewhat to pot. But when he asks his former clothing designer, Edna, to repair his hero suit, she responds with an entire new ensemble for him and his family – and the repair to his old suit, which is a clue.
While Mr. Incredible is on his second mission using his new suit, Elastigirl sees the repair to his old suit and knows something is up. She contacts Edna, is introduced to the clothes for the entire family, who then suggests Elastigirl may be ignorant of her husband’s doings. Upon trying to track him down on his “business trip,” she discovers his employment termination at the insurance company, and Edna points out that, as part of the ensemble, the location of any member can be easily discovered at the press of a button.
And what of Mr. Incredible? A new rogue robot, faster and tougher, has him at the end of his rope, when the robot is restrained and his adversary appears – a fanboy he had frustrated years earlier, who has gone sour and invented such weapons that he’s now a “super” himself. He goes by the handle Syndrome. The “rogue robot” is actually a super killer, invented by Syndrome and improved each time it loses. As the supers have little contact with each other, there was little clue that they were being offed, one by one, by this man with no ethics. Mr. Incredible breaks free and manages to trick Syndrome into thinking he’s successfully killed Mr. Incredible, and so Mr. Incredible breaks into the island fortress and accesses Syndrome’s plans.
As he’s about to leave with the information, Elastigirl presses the button and Mr. Incredible’s suit signals its location – which is detected by Syndrome. Captured and restrained, Mr. Incredible listens as Syndrome’s defenses destroy the jet on which Elastigirl, Dash, and Violet are inbound to the island (damn fast jet).
But they’re supers, and the destruction of their jet is merely an inconvenience. On the island undetected, Elastigirl goes in search of her husband, and finds him – but too late to foil Syndrome’s plot at the island. Fighting their way off the island, they confront and defeat the rogue robot, which Syndrome had planned to defeat himself through his secret control of it, but failed. In the climax, Syndrome tries to kidnap their infant Jack, only to discover there’s more to kidnapping the son of supers than one might think.
I didn’t mention the humor, the delightful eccentricity and dialog of Edna, the back and forth of the plot, but it’s all there. Someone definitely put a lot of thought into this movie, and yet … let me give a couple of examples that I find jarring.
Mirage works for Syndrome. She knows what’s going on, she knows supers are being killed – so why is she upset when it comes out that children were on the jet that was destroyed? She’s already a killer by conspiracy, and of her own kind, no less. She’s charming – but she’s not believable in her responses.
And that’s the problem in the larger world – in a world full of supers, why are there still criminals? Indeed, this is alluded to in the first scene, an interview with Mr. Incredible prior to his marriage. Even suppressed, they should still be doing their good works. It also just rings a little bit false.
Add in some sloppy editing in the second half of the movie, and it’s an effort that I almost rate a failure despite all of the fine elements that are brought together. But I still enjoy watching it for most of the fine details and the excellent plot. I can’t quite recommend it – but I do plan to see the announced sequel.
