#5 - The Incredibles' Villains
A few weeks ago, I wrote something defending the character of Rose Tico from The Last Jedi. It got a lot of positive feedback from some very nice people, which I very much appreciate. A coworker of mine even told me, "That's what you should be doing with your life." High praise.
So I thought to myself, "Maybe I should keep doing this sort of thing - tackling a real-life issue through the lense of movies (pun intended). Maybe I could actually make a small difference, and leave the world a bit better than I found it." But THEN I thought to myself, "Oh wait, I wanna talk about The Incredibles." So here we are.
As you definitely already know, The Incredibles 2 has just been released in theaters. And it's doing pretty alright for itself. In just one weekend, it's made over $180 million, making it the 8th biggest movie opening ever, and the biggest animated opening. Ever. Sources say, "That's pretty good."
According to a VERY reputable source, whom I'm VERY close to, this massive success is due to three things: 1) Father's Day weekend, 2) everyone loves and remembers the first Incredibles, and 3) this new one is actually really good. The 14 year wait really paid off, apparently. Incredibles 2 feels like an honest and inspired follow-up to the first, with satisfying continuations of each character's arc. Frozone still argues with his wife! Good stuff.
However, I don't think Incredibles 2 is quite as good as Incredibles. "But why?" you ask. "Surely you must have a well reasoned explanation for this claim!" Oh, don't you worry. That's why we're here.
Per usual: SPOILERS. So many spoilers, for both movies. I might even throw in some spoilers for some other movies, just for kicks. You've been warned.
Ok, so first I want to sing my praises for Syndrome. I love this dude. He's up their with my all-time favorite villains, including Darth Vader, the Joker, and Paul Ryan. Syndrome's supervillain origin is directly tied to his nemesis, Mr. Incredible. In a way, Mr. Incredible created Syndrome by rejecting Buddy (excuse me, IncrediBoy) at the beginning of the movie. Because of this, the conflict becomes way more personal for both characters. Instead of just "I need to stop this bad guy because he's bad," Mr. Incredible is thinking "I need to stop this bad guy to clear my conscience."
Syndrome's motivations are totally clear, and so is his plan. Make superheroes obsolete by making everyone super. "When everyone's super, no one will be." That's why he's such a great villain - the audience totally understands why he's doing this. He gets to be the superhero he always wanted, and then gets rid of heroes forever.
Bonus points for Syndrome: he's super dark. That's not always a good thing, but totally works in this case. He knowingly fires missles at a plane with kids onboard! In a Disney movie! Wild. Also, he has a big robot. Two bonus points for Syndrome!
Now onto Screenslaver. Or Evelyn. There are a lot of things I liked about her: Screenslaver's "powers" led to some very cool action set pieces, and the name Screenslaver might be the most retro comic book thing I've ever heard. Very good stuff.
First of all - the twist reveal is just so obvious. I know it's technically a kids movie, but I don't know anyone who didn't see it coming. (Full disclosure: I actually thought her brother was going to be the villain, but it's close enough). I don't think a predictable twist is necessarily a bad twist, but it does remove a lot of possible dramatic tension from the story.
Evelyn's motivations seem very flimsy. Her dad idolized supers, but was killed anyways, so she wants to outlaw supers? It's a non-sequitur. Just adding an angle of "superheroes could have saved him but chose not to" would have fixed this - for me, anyway. But I guess that's pretty similar to Syndrome. Man, I love Syndrome!
Lastly: Evelyn's plan. Bring heroes back into the spotlight, then mind control them to make them do some bad things in the public eye, just to... outlaw them again? This is a roundabout and convoluted plan. If her brother is dead set on bringing heroes back, why did she help him at all? Why didn't she convince him not to go through with it? She could have just as easily made supers act up in front of her brother, and the whole thing could have been avoided.
Bonus points for Evelyn: uh... I already said I liked Screenslaver's name... Oh! Evelyn is voiced by Catherine Keener, who is a very talented actress. And she has a big boat. Two bonus points for Evelyn!
Look, I don't mean to knock Incredibles 2. It's great. There was never any chance of it being as good as the first, but this is a totally fair shot. I want you and your entire extended family to go see it. Again.
Before we go, I have one final request for you! The reader! Please, in a comment or tweet, let me know your thoughts. How did you think Incredibles 2 stacked up against its predecessor? Were you also disappointed by the villain? Is the first Incredibles the best superhero movie? Ever? I would love to talk about it with you and any other opinionated folks in your life. As always, thanks for reading!
P.S. Snape kills Dumbledore.
So I thought to myself, "Maybe I should keep doing this sort of thing - tackling a real-life issue through the lense of movies (pun intended). Maybe I could actually make a small difference, and leave the world a bit better than I found it." But THEN I thought to myself, "Oh wait, I wanna talk about The Incredibles." So here we are.
As you definitely already know, The Incredibles 2 has just been released in theaters. And it's doing pretty alright for itself. In just one weekend, it's made over $180 million, making it the 8th biggest movie opening ever, and the biggest animated opening. Ever. Sources say, "That's pretty good."
According to a VERY reputable source, whom I'm VERY close to, this massive success is due to three things: 1) Father's Day weekend, 2) everyone loves and remembers the first Incredibles, and 3) this new one is actually really good. The 14 year wait really paid off, apparently. Incredibles 2 feels like an honest and inspired follow-up to the first, with satisfying continuations of each character's arc. Frozone still argues with his wife! Good stuff.
However, I don't think Incredibles 2 is quite as good as Incredibles. "But why?" you ask. "Surely you must have a well reasoned explanation for this claim!" Oh, don't you worry. That's why we're here.
Per usual: SPOILERS. So many spoilers, for both movies. I might even throw in some spoilers for some other movies, just for kicks. You've been warned.
Ok, so first I want to sing my praises for Syndrome. I love this dude. He's up their with my all-time favorite villains, including Darth Vader, the Joker, and Paul Ryan. Syndrome's supervillain origin is directly tied to his nemesis, Mr. Incredible. In a way, Mr. Incredible created Syndrome by rejecting Buddy (excuse me, IncrediBoy) at the beginning of the movie. Because of this, the conflict becomes way more personal for both characters. Instead of just "I need to stop this bad guy because he's bad," Mr. Incredible is thinking "I need to stop this bad guy to clear my conscience."
Syndrome's motivations are totally clear, and so is his plan. Make superheroes obsolete by making everyone super. "When everyone's super, no one will be." That's why he's such a great villain - the audience totally understands why he's doing this. He gets to be the superhero he always wanted, and then gets rid of heroes forever.
Bonus points for Syndrome: he's super dark. That's not always a good thing, but totally works in this case. He knowingly fires missles at a plane with kids onboard! In a Disney movie! Wild. Also, he has a big robot. Two bonus points for Syndrome!
Now onto Screenslaver. Or Evelyn. There are a lot of things I liked about her: Screenslaver's "powers" led to some very cool action set pieces, and the name Screenslaver might be the most retro comic book thing I've ever heard. Very good stuff.
First of all - the twist reveal is just so obvious. I know it's technically a kids movie, but I don't know anyone who didn't see it coming. (Full disclosure: I actually thought her brother was going to be the villain, but it's close enough). I don't think a predictable twist is necessarily a bad twist, but it does remove a lot of possible dramatic tension from the story.
Evelyn's motivations seem very flimsy. Her dad idolized supers, but was killed anyways, so she wants to outlaw supers? It's a non-sequitur. Just adding an angle of "superheroes could have saved him but chose not to" would have fixed this - for me, anyway. But I guess that's pretty similar to Syndrome. Man, I love Syndrome!
Lastly: Evelyn's plan. Bring heroes back into the spotlight, then mind control them to make them do some bad things in the public eye, just to... outlaw them again? This is a roundabout and convoluted plan. If her brother is dead set on bringing heroes back, why did she help him at all? Why didn't she convince him not to go through with it? She could have just as easily made supers act up in front of her brother, and the whole thing could have been avoided.
Bonus points for Evelyn: uh... I already said I liked Screenslaver's name... Oh! Evelyn is voiced by Catherine Keener, who is a very talented actress. And she has a big boat. Two bonus points for Evelyn!
Look, I don't mean to knock Incredibles 2. It's great. There was never any chance of it being as good as the first, but this is a totally fair shot. I want you and your entire extended family to go see it. Again.
Before we go, I have one final request for you! The reader! Please, in a comment or tweet, let me know your thoughts. How did you think Incredibles 2 stacked up against its predecessor? Were you also disappointed by the villain? Is the first Incredibles the best superhero movie? Ever? I would love to talk about it with you and any other opinionated folks in your life. As always, thanks for reading!
P.S. Snape kills Dumbledore.
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