Worth seeing:

for Brad Bird's unique blend of family comedy and super-hero thriller in what is likely to be one of the breeziest two hours of cinema of the year

Director:	Brad Bird
Featuring:	Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Huck Milner, Sarah Vowell, Barry Bostwick, Bob Odenkirk, Brad Bird, Catherine Keener, Eli Fucile, Isabella Rossellini, John Ratzenberger, Michael Bird, Paul Eiding, Phil LaMarr, Samuel L Jackson, Sophia Bush
Length:	125 minutes
Certificate:	PG
Country:	US
Released:	13th July 2018

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Bob Parr (Craig T Nelson), formerly known as Mr Incredible, and his family are desperate to save their city from crime, but their efforts often cause so much damage, without always catching the villains, that super-heroes have been banned.

But an eccentric billionaire Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) want to change public opinion and come up with a plan to take the most loveable and reliable hero, Bob’s wife Helen (Holly Hunter) and help her use her Elastigirl persona to change the tide and persuade the authorities to lift the ban on Supers.

With Helen going out to work, it falls to Bob to stay at home to look after the kids.

When Elastigirl catches the next super-villain, Screen Slaver, it looks like the propaganda battle is won and Supers are about to be welcomed back into the fold, but suddenly, the Supers sitting in the sidelines start to turn on the good guys.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

For fans of Pixar’s super-hero family, The Incredibles, it’s been a 14 year wait for a sequel and it’s been worth every minute.

Like its predecessor, every bit as much a family comedy as it is a super-hero film, Incredibles 2 is a lot of fun, with elements to appeal to everyone from new parents, experienced parents, young kids and teenagers.

There’s perhaps not as much to appeal to adults with no links to children; the super-hero plot itself isn’t particularly convincing but even so, the heroic action – buoyed by its provenance as an animation – is as thrilling as you’d expect from any super-hero film. While grown-ups will be able to work out the twist just from saying the names of the characters out aloud, that will go right over the heads of younger viewers.

But it’s the comedy that springs from the family dynamics that will resonate with anyone who’s ever had a child, known a child or been a child.

Whether it’s the exhausted Bob’s ability to keep his eyes open while reading bed-time stories or exasperated Bob’s frustration that maths has been changed since he was a kid, it’s Mr Incredible’s Daddy duties that prove to be the most fertile grounds for humour – and indeed pathos.

Elastigirl more than holds her own as the main hero, with her frustrated husband sitting on the sidelines.

With the gags, observations and thrills confidently – perhaps even complacently – coming thick and fast, it’s about the breeziest two hours you could hope for in a cinema.

It’s not perfect, but it lives up to its bold title; its predecessor was incredible – and this is Incredible 2.