mundane. watched the incredibles this weekend. pixar has a track record for making smart witty movies. sadly, the incredibles doesn't measure up. stop reading here if you haven't seen it. because i know many of you are probably inclined to like the incredibles and the power of my movie review might taint your experience. a super hero themed movie by pixar, how could it go so wrong? it's not that the incredibles was bad, it's just that i expected so much more. i wanted more riffing on the state of super heroes gone normal. there weren't enough "wow, that was really funny/smart" moments.



some people have said that maybe this film's failings can be attributed to the fact that pixar is finally tackling an animated movie about real people, instead of a movie about animated creatures/objects. but no, that wasn't the problem for me. the problem was that the incredibles didn't give us a new take on the super hero as normal citizen bit. monsters inc gave us "monsters who are normal people but are paid to scare kids" and ran with it. incredibles gives us no clear message and no really good takes on what it's like to be a super hero at home.



some of the best parts of the movie were the action parts and seeing how the different characters used their powers, which ain't right. the movie seemed to be constructed with the idea that the characters were super heroes first, and then normal people second -- instead of the other way around. the success of the other pixar movies was based on the concept of people as toy/bug/fish/monster and it should have stayed that way for this movie, but it didn't.



SPOILER. and the ending with the baby was just bad. not because it was obvious -- one expects these things -- but because the super power that was exposed was just terrible. the power made no sense and maybe the effect got a few cheap laughs but i certainly wasn't laughing. make the damn kid have a defined power. don't make him turn into a steel weight and then suddenly transform into a demon. boring. shape shifter my ass.



the highlight of the movie (as professed by all) was super hero costume designer, edna mode. why? because it was a side of super heroes we've never seen before. we've seen super heroes tearing shit up, we've seen them lose their powers or be forced not to use them. but we haven't seen the behind the scenes of the super hero life. seeing a celebrity super hero costume designer was new and fresh. but i wanted more. how does mr invulnerable cut his toenails? does running really fast translate into thinking/talking really fast? show elastigirl grabbing her wedding ring as it drops down the drain. show us behind the scenes, into the theme, which was "super heroes as normal people." it seems like they forgot during the middle part of the movie that they were making a movie contrasting super hero life with domestic life, and when the contrasting elements were brought back in, it was way too late. and that's why the incredibles lost me.



don't get me wrong, the movie is still quality, and the concept is money, but it's just not a typical pixar movie. we expect the impossible from pixar and so far with each successive release, they've met and exceeded our expectations. not so this time. i know a different writer/director worked on this movie, so the shift in paradigm can be attributed to him. but i want the old pixar back. i want the smart, funny, incredible pixar, not more of the incredibles.