The Incredibles
So I had done gone seen The Incredibles today. How's that for a first sentence? Picked up a bagel and Cape Cod salt and vinegar chips (not the best salt and vinegar. utz is the best s&v, baby. the utz!) and an Arizona. I was disappointed to find out that I bought Arizona Raspberry Iced Tea by accident. I don't like fruit flavors in my drink usually ever. I want my drinks to be the juice that it is. No added flavor! Flavored beers! Flavored water! I want none of it. I don't like the taste added on top of the drink itself. It's sort of like how people don't like foods touching on their plate. However, there are a couple exceptions like I like orange juice and grapefruit juice mixed because they are of a similar genre. I do like lime in seltzer but that doesn't really count because seltzer isn't really a juice and I'm a big fan of lime. So that's ok. So that's how I feel about that.
So The Incredibles. I'm glad the bitches at Pixar have really decided to stick it to the man. Clunker animated films are dropping off now that the bar has been raised up visually and storilly which works out well for us. Pixar seems to have a pretty simple philosophy. Instead of working really hard to make something bad. Let's work really hard to make something good. Let's not only give people their money's worth but let's up the value a notch so it feels like the popcorn and soda are free. And let's not insult our audiences by spelling out every piece of everything. And lets write some jokes that work both high and low. Must hail Pixar.
That being said I was not blown away by The Incredibles as much as I'd hoped. I liked it lots no doubt- but didn't fall in love. As the movie moved and grooved I kept waiting for my inner energy juices to start flowing- but the tap never really got turned on. As I watched it I kept stumbling over trying to put my finger on what was missing from this movie for me. It looked awesome! It was funny! It wasn't dumb! It was different! It had action! The plot was interesting and good! So what's the problem? Was it flat? Trying to hard? Was it too 'unrealistic'? Too straight a plot? Lacking magic? Lacking tension? To be honest I never really figured out what it was that kept putting me off. And that became a frustration for me. But regardless of my mentalness about it, I think The Incredibles is a movie that needs to be seen.
So much effort and obvious love was poured into this flick -and it moved along at a newish feel in momentum and pacing. It was fresh. I dug the details and the human touches. A box of pencils spilling off a desk. The annoyance of a car door not shutting properly. Moments. The family squabbles and all that. All the characters weren't built out totally but I got em enough. When the action started up and my jaw hung and swung more than once. There was good smashy and crashy and zooms. It moved unapologetically superfast at times. Plus there's a good amount of funny in this flick. Especially Edna. So I watched. And I was wowed. And I chewed and enjoyed. And I liked. I laughed. But I couldn't put my finger on what wasn't working for me. So I picked up the phone and called my nephew to see if he could help out and see what he thought. Here's a clip of the conversation...
Three Good Things About This Movie
- Some of the shots were so elaborate it was, frankly, ridiculous.
- Mr. Incredible stuffed into his regular guy life stuff was good stuff.
- The feeling of the family pulling together as they each grew into their own...
felt good.
Three Bad Things About This Movie
- Lawsuits carried the most power.
- The Sam Jackson character "Frozone" kinda smacked a little of a last
minute let's-get-a-black-character-in-there-somewhere type decision.
- I wanted more different destructo machines.
All in all I think people should check out this flick. It's well worthy. Whether you like the whole thing. Or how it looks. Or the action. Or looking at Elasticgirl's butt. Or whatever. It's worth a look see. People in the theater seemed jazzed up about it. But for me, I spent alot of time munching on a bagel enjoying this great action-packed spectacle flash all over the screen... but somehow half-wondering about what I was missing.