I had the occasion to do some travelling last week and so took the opportunity to watch a couple of more commercial movies that I would ordinarily have skipped during the flights. I liked the first one well enough and considered catching it in the cinema but I’d heard that it was a solid but not truly outstanding film and so ended up skipping it.

Despite the heroics of Parr family in the first film, superheroes are still disliked and illegal. Following a fight with the Underminer that causes plenty of collateral damage, the government ends the Superhero Relocation Program, causing Bob and Helen to worry about their financial future. Luckily, rich industrialist and superhero enthusiast Winston Deavor sweeps in with the help of his tech savvy sister Evelyn to sponsor an effort to rehabilitate their public image. To Bob’s surprise and annoyance however, they want Elastigirl to lead the effort as she is more popular and her fights cause less damage. This leaves Bob to play househusband in the spiffy mansion the Deavors set the family up with. While Elastigirl fights a new villain called the Screensaver who can hypnotize people through monitors, Bob has to deal with Jack-Jack’s emerging and extremely varied powerset and Violet’s love troubles with a boy in her school.

Unlike some of the best Pixar films like Coco and Inside Out, this is a children’s show through and through with very little to offer adults. Having Elastigirl get involved in all the action while Mr. Incredible is an amusing but not really original inversion at this point. Continuing with the theme of superheroes being unpopular with the public feels a little stale as well, especially as they are following up on a plot thread from 14 years ago. It’s especially weird that the audience has known about Jack-Jack’s superpowers all these years but Bob and Helen are only now surprised to learn about them. I’d also argue that having a billionaire step in to give the Parr family a huge mansion feels very tone deaf and inappropriate given the state of the world at the moment. It makes for a film that could have been a lot of fun maybe a decade ago but has been far too long in the making.

Still, the visuals are great and I thought that the action sequences in particular looked especially dynamic. Brad Bird certainly is a skilled action director. Putting Elastigirl into the spotlight is inspired as her powers allow for a movement and fighting style unlike anything else seen in any other superhero film. I feel sad for Mr. Incredible for how boring and underwhelming his own powers are. As this indeed a children’s show, the fight scenes have plenty of wow factor but absolutely no sense of danger and tension. Jack-Jack is immensely powerful but he is only used as a source for gags and to frustrate Bob. One disappointment is that the Dash feels almost absent at times as he is the only member of the family without his own subplot.

Overall this makes for enjoyable entertainment but I feel justified in my decision to not watch it in the cinema. It really should have been made long before this and even now it feels as if some parts were rushed. For example, they never did end up catching the Underminer and I’m not sure that the Parrs continuing to rely on corporate sponsorship makes for a good ending. Fun but rather forgettable.