I think the short dude has my favorite new super-power.
A good story asks a good question, even if the question isn’t directly applicable to the audience, and in the case of The Incredibles 2 (2018), the question is whether or not, beyond their immediate impact as a crime-fighting force, the superhero community, of which the Incredibles, aka the Parrs, are a part of, are having a good influence or bad influence on humanity at large.
It’s a good question because it forces the viewer to think beyond the moment, to speculate if, every time we’re faced with disaster, someone with superpowers will come and save the day, then how will we mature and fulfill our potential? In fact, why should we bother?
The hidden application of this question to our future involves a subject not unknown to this blog, namely that of the impact of an automated labor workforce and AI (artificial intelligence) entities. While automation has generally been employed in repetitive tasks which were the low-hanging fruit of the field, freeing humans to work on tasks of a more creative and rewarding nature, the question continues to cause anxiety because it’s always difficult to conceptualize new jobs until the new world we continually create requires them. The AIs can be seen in the role of super heroes, performing humanity’s tasks better than human can.
Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t really try to answer the question. It’s answers to good questions, especially unexpected or innovative answers, that can transform a good movie into a great movie, and that transformation isn’t here. Not that this is a bad movie, far from it. Too many sequels are drek, money-harvesting machines that lack the fuel, the story, to actually do well enough to make their creation matter. The Incredibles 2, along with its technical competence and sense of humor, at least dared to ask an interesting question.
Perhaps we’ll get an answer in The Incredibles 3 (20?).
