Jasonic Reviews The Incredibles

*Dramatic narrator voice* In a world where every Fantastic Four movie is a stinker, leave it to Pixar to make a proper movie about a superhero family in the form of The Incredibles. And there's no denying that it truly is incredible!

Yes, I know that's cliche as could be, though there is real truth to it. By the time the movie was released, Pixar had already started out with a consistently good track record with the likes of the Toy Story films, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo that there was literally no telling where they would go next. By the time the film was being made, brand new technology to animate realistic-looking humans -- the likes of which most, if not all Pixar films, only had as background characters up to that point -- had been created as a means of upping the look of humans as they were to be the primary focus of this film. And, on top of that, the superhero film genre was still very much unpopular that the studio could just do whatever they want to create their own superhero-centric film without the pressure to live up to popular superhero trends in movies (if there were any) besides what the X-Men and Spider-Man movies had to offer. Throw a little family dynamic and James Bond-inspired settings and music into the mix, and you have what I consider to be one of the coolest Pixars from my childhood, The Incredibles.

***INCREDIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*** (actually, no, just thought I'd type that for fun)

The setup and overall plot is rather fascinating compared to most superhero movies of this day and age. In the movie, we follow Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) as he, along with other "Supers" of his day and age, are sued for collateral damage and other injuries inflicted on civilians in their crime fighting efforts. As a result, he and his family of Supers consisting of Helen/Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter), Violet (voiced by Sarah Vowell), Dash (voiced by Spencer Fox), and Jack-Jack (voiced by two different babies whose names I can't recall) are forced by the government into a relocation program, moving on a regular basis and hiding their powers as they do so. 15 years after the program's enactment, Bob faces a mid-life crisis, longing to relive the glory days as his Super persona and working with his best friend, Lucius Best/Frozone (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) as a secret vigilante on the side. Things finally start to brighten up when Mr. Incredible is recruited by a mysterious client to find and take down a rogue robot known as the Omnidroid as it supposedly threatens the remote island of Nomanisan. Eventually, Bob discovers it's all a plot orchestrated by a supervillain named Syndrome (voiced by Jason Lee), his former biggest fan formerly known as "Buddy" whom he rejected assistance from years ago and is now a maniacal, tech savvy monster out to kill him. Only when the rest of the family gets involved do the Supers face permanent extinction when Syndrome threatens to take over for them himself.

As stated before, this flick stands out from every other superhero film in recent memory for having such a unique and interesting storyline with themes to complete it. It's not relatable in the sense that everyone wants to be greater than they are, but rather it shows that everyone (especially adults going through midlife crises) longs to relive the glory days when they feel they were at the top of their game and that really shows in Mr. Incredible's arc throughout. Though the film is called The Incredibles, the film primarily focuses on him and his journey; symbolically, the first third of the film post-prologue is largely drained of color to reflect how drained of fun and excitement Bob's world is in having to deal with difficult clients in his insurance company job as opposed to stopping crime as a Super like he wants. It's mostly about him trying to get his life back together for more selfish reasons, initially before realizing that his family truly is his greatest treasure. For that matter, the family dynamics are some of the most notable parts of the whole thing. Each family member behaves like their respective role in the family without coming off as one-dimensional or stereotypical (i.e.: Dash behaves like a hyperactive 10-year-old just as I was when the film came out) and their superpower also equates with their familial role and who they are -- such as Violet being a self-conscious teenager who often wants to disappear due to her insecurities. The family, while not completely the focus, does have a lot of fun ways of playing off each other with their exchanges throughout as well as their working together more towards the end of the film and they're what makes the film shine through.

From a visual/technical perspective, this is still one of the most visually impressive and interesting technical feats in Pixar to this date. The humans, being the main focus, all have features that make them look real and identifiable as such; from realistic flowing hairs to noticeable facial scruff, having realistic human features was a big step up from Pixar's previous human supporting characters, which mostly looked subpar compared to the main characters which weren't human. Real as they might look from a visual standpoint, their designs are rather cartoony as if the film were meant to be hand drawn at first. Director, Brad Bird, often had a knack for designing humans with a more cartoony edge and his work really shows here -- just look at The Iron Giant humans and compare. Unironically, Brad Bird's character, Edna "E" Mode, whom he voiced in the film is a costume designer for the Supers has this sort of psychotic passion for designing super suits I would almost assume that she, in some way, represents his own inner passion for the amount of thought and care he puts into his character designs. As much as "E" doesn't like capes in her designs (as shown with her popular "No capes!" joke), I bet it's true that Bird is the same way about realistic character proportions.

The film is excellent in the audio department for a number of reasons mainly the music. Composed by Michael Giacchino, the score has a clear James Bond influence with the loud jazzy instruments accompanying the action scenes, which, in retrospect, creates a fitting fanfare for a whole family of supers. For one, it's different from the traditional dramatic horns we hear in most superhero movies (The Dark Knight, The Amazing Spider-Man, etc.) as it allows for both excitement for the family and others watching as well as dramatic tension for every time the heroes swoop into action. Second, it works for the time period in which the film appears to be set; though rather inconspicuous at first, upon closer inspection, it's clear that, based on the car models and suburban aesthetics among other things, the film is set in the 1960s back when James Bond was first starting out. Although to some this is rather unbelievable, even the 60s James Bond films, which were set in the time period even had futuristic high-tech machines and facilities that the villains operated in; that's what makes the James Bond influence very fitting. And, while the voice actors weren't the most noteworthy aspect, each does an great job of portraying their character/role with the Parr's voice actors sounding like a real family and some of the bigger names like Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee creating fun performances for their characters.

I may not have talked about the story much, but it's nice to see that the cliffhanger this left off on so many years ago is finally getting a payoff with the soon-to-be Incredibles 2 coming out in June, for which the announcement was the reason I decided to go ahead and review the first one near its 13th anniversary this month. For that matter, the film really lives up to its name with the deviation from the traditional superhero narrative, the portrayal of family and midlife crisis, the interesting visual looks and technical feats it achieved, the fantastic score, and great voice actors. This may even be one of the best Pixars apart from Toy Story and Finding Nemo even still to this day! That said, the film gets an A+ in my book and is definitely recommendable for families, moviegoers, animated and superhero movie nuts alike!

Thanks y'all for reading and I will see you in the next review!

Jasonic Reviews Iron Man

When a movie comes out that's based on a comic book, it's interesting when a mainstream audience knows next to nothing about the character being portrayed. In the case of Batman, Spider-Man, and the Hulk, pretty much everyone and their brother knows that they came from murdered parents, spider bite, and gamma radiation respectively; and it's only because they're so popular too. However, in the rare instance that a superhero film comes out and next to nobody knows the origin that it actually turns out to be an interesting watch, it's exciting to the brim and nobody gets bored. This is exactly how it was back in the day when the MCU first booted up nearly a decade ago. With the success of the MCU permeating heavily throughout the world the last ten years, I decided it would be interesting go back and look over how the thin popularity of the character's origin among other things sent the one film that launched the MCU off the ground flying to where it is now.

For years, the idea of a cinematic universe in Hollywood had been tossed and turned across many producers. Early attempts at such included deals with Fox and Sony to cross over the X-Men and Spider-Man with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine set to appear in Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man movie back in 2002. While that idea was scrapped for weird reasons -- Hugh Jackman forgetting his costume -- producers at Marvel were looking for a way to create a film universe akin to that of their comic books, which would cross over through common plot elements and characters. Eventually, they formed Marvel Studios and with plans to kick off a cinematic universe utilizing the characters and properties they still owned the rights to. Seeing as they still owned the rights to all the core Avengers members, the key was that they created a universe set mainly around each member of the team as well as their coming together through interwoven plot-lines and carefully crafted characters. The result was the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which got off to a fresh start with who had been quite possibly their least popular character at the time: Iron Man.

***SPOILERS AHEAD*** (just in case you haven't seen the movie -- though you probably have)

The plot explores the previously unpopular origins of Iron Man. In it, billionaire genius playboy/philanthropist, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.), is the egocentric head of weapons manufacturer, Stark Industries, who cares more about himself he lives as he pleases. After a demonstration of his newly built "Jericho missile" in the Middle East, Stark is captured by terrorist organization, the Ten Rings, who coerce him into building a Jericho missile of their own. While being held captive, he is implanted with an arc reactor that keeps shrapnel from an explosion that injured him out of his heart and gets the idea to use it to power a suit of armor that ultimately helps him escape. Upon being rescued and brought back to America by Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (played by Terrence Howard), Tony decides that, having seen his weapons being utilized for terror, to shut down all weapons manufacturing -- much to the dismay of the world and his company manager, Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges) -- and work on improving his armor design for future use. Meanwhile, Stark and his personal assistant, Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), get involved in a conspiracy surrounding Stark Industries and its possible connections to the Ten Rings. In a series of sciency inventing montages and company drama, Tony Stark forms himself into the renowned superhero known as Iron Man in hopes to save lives from the atrocities he's created.

One thing this movie does right is make a superhero origin story both interesting and exciting for a change. Not only was the origin uncommon knowledge for many movie goers at the time, but with Iron Man, we're also given more of a "show don't tell" approach with the way that Tony is often seen building his Iron Man suits without too big an exposition dump as to what he's doing. Throughout his many planning and building trials with the Iron Man suits and functionalities, it never gets boring just watching things play out as he surrounds himself with technology, viewing and playing with holographic displays in his Malibu mansion workshop basement that everybody only wishes they could have in their own home. And the way he takes his time building the suit components and practicing the repulsors and jetpacks is done in a way that helps us enjoy watching him adjust. It feels like those viewing are in the process with him as he goes about the trial and error of doing and redoing everything. For that matter, his reactions are very much believable and make the whole thing fun to watch.

Speaking of reactions, the actors are not only what sold this movie on its own, but also what helped the universe gain a solid foundation in cinemas for the last many years. It's undeniable that Robert Downey Jr. is absolutely fantastic in every way as Tony Stark, taking the character as Marvel fanboys know from the comics and making him his own. The ways in which he sells a plethora of attitudes and emotions not only through his snarky, witty, apathetic dialogue, but even through simple facial expression shows that he was really into the character from the beginning. And in all the years since the film's release, he's been both a major selling point for the many sequels he's starred in as well as a surrogate that has kept the universe going for all these years. And Jeff Bridges, gotta love him! He really sells it well by playing a villain for a change and keeps everything fun and cool every time he's on screen that it's a shame that, for being the villain, they axed him off right away. Regardless, Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper may not have gotten much credit at the time, but looking back, I say she really is her character just as Clark Gregg really is Agent Coulson (who plays a minor part in this one, but would later help tie the universe together) to me. Sadly, Terrence Howard never got to return as Rhodey, but he and the other side characters did a fine job themselves with what they were given.

While actors weren't as involved in the action scenes as they were your standard dialogue scenes, the action and special effects of this movie are stellar and an innovation for the time period in which it was released. In a world where superhero costumes sometimes look fake and unrealistic (i.e.: Green Lantern), the special effects department did a great job of making the Iron Man suit look organic and believable like a man was actually inside operating the thing. It blends well with the action scenes in the Middle East where Iron Man squares off against the Ten Rings terrorists as well as a single tank and a couple of jet fighters that tail that he has to evade in an exciting aerial chase. Speaking of aerial, the first flight scene is amazing and the various shots of Tony's face inside the HUD here and throughout the movie allow the audience to somehow feel like they're actually flying with Tony -- and the attention to details displayed in the HUD is just stunning! The only downside of the action bits is that the finale fight between Stark's Iron Man and Stane's Iron Monger suit is underwhelming at best with the action often pausing for the two to get their bearings as they utter commands and one liners. Clearly not the best third act fight in the series, but I'm thankful that in most future MCU installments, they only got better from there.

Not only did Iron Man provide the perfect jumping off point for the MCU on its own, but in some ways it revolutionized the superhero genre as a whole. Most superhero origin movies tend to follow the tropes set by the origin movies of the past whereas this dodged many standard tropes to give the film a fresher, more inviting feel as a whole. For one, prior to the title card, we are given enough of a glimpse as to who Tony Stark is in the military convoy when suddenly his attackers show up to kill everyone and capture him before the cuts 36 hours prior to the incident. Granted, this is where the usual buildup part that most superhero origins (i.e.: Spider-Man) utilize, but an action-based intro like that allows for a more engaging way of reaching the turning point for the main hero -- Deadpool would later utilize this in a more fun, creative way. While minor at best, such a twist is nothing compared to Tony's big reveal as Iron Man at the very end. Never before had a superhero willingly revealed their identity to the world in a movie so to have the first live action take on Tony Stark take such a leap was a big deal for the superhero genre as a whole and made the film stand out even more than anything else of its kind. That said, the way they executed everything was nearly perfect and it makes me glad to have stuck with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in its cinematic inter-woven artistry after all this time.

What more can I say about a movie like Iron Man? It's got an engaging origin, great actors, stellar action and special effects, and it gave a big slap in the face to most superhero tropes that Hollywood had yet to fully break away from at the time. The fact that it's kept an entire cinematic universe up and running after all this time is absolutely amazing and the after credits scene with the sneak peak of Nick Fury and the mention of the "Avenger Initiative" only served as the introduction to after credits scenes being a necessity for all subsequent Marvel movies as well as an major influence to encourage audiences to stay until the end of the movie for a change. Clearly it revolutionized the film industry as a whole and paved the way for DC among others to put up some serious competition with other cinematic universe rolling out since. But, for standing well on its own, I give the movie a solid A and call it a strong recommendation for moviegoers and those looking to get into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thanks y'all for reading and I will see you in the next review!