INCREDIBLE 2

INCREDIBLE 2

The incredible 2 ', in effect, submissively recycles many of the elements that made his predecessor a triumph. Once again we have a dysfunctional family, the Parr, who tries to reconcile their role as superheroes with the domestic problems in their midst; again, after being outlawed by the authorities, they receive the support of a benefactor who turns out to be cheating, and again, when one of their members falls into the networks of the bad guys, the rest of the offspring comes to the rescue. Now as then, too, everything is resolved in a spectacular final climax, and as we turn to it we are witnessing a new sequence starring fashion designer Edna Moda and other gags -the government methods of erasing memory, the authoritarian wife of Frozono- already used in similar conditions 14 years ago.

Part of the power of that first film is that each of its characters, the villain included, was endowed with a distinctive dramatic bow despite the fact that at the same time all of them worked together with complete fluidity to advance with energy a single story. The sequel, however, provides so many narrative detours and subplots that none of them receives enough attention. Regarding the characters, the only one of the Parr whose personality is expanded on this occasion is the baby Jack-Jack, which actually functions as something like a Minion: an adorable thing that again and again stops the progress of the action for make your cucamonas. Some of them, eye, are unpalatable moments of 'slapstick', like that fight against a raccoon that is pure Tex Avery.

At least on paper, the main plot conflict has to do with the diabolical plans of a mysterious villain called Raptapantallas, whose plan is to transform citizens into zombies hypnotizing it through the screens that surround it in their daily lives. Apart from having something of a hypocrite - a film created through hundreds of small computer screens to be projected on thousands of large movie screens allows us the luxury of criticizing our addiction to screens - the idea does not work at all. cause of the universe in which the movie takes place, an indefinite past in which mobile phones do not exist. In fact, the only screens that people see throughout the footage are a handful of TVs in a shop window. That the identity of the nemesis that moves the Raptapantallas threads is obvious from the beginning does not help.

The film's grace lies elsewhere: as it did in its predecessor, director Brad Bird argues that true heroism is in creating and maintaining a family, and that actually saving the world is just another way of exercising progenitor. More specifically, if 'The Incredibles' was a metaphor about how difficult it is to balance work and domestic life, 'The Incredibles 2' is a satire on the unpredictability that educating children can become. Bob and Helen Parr's priority is not to fight crime but to pay bills, help kids with homework and the scourge of hormones and keep little Jack-Jack in the cradle.

Much has been said about how the sequel adapts that scenario to the new times by reversing the roles of each of them: here, Mr. Incredible is forced to stay at home to take care of the children while Elastigirl is in charge of superheroine . In other words, if the first film meditated on the typically masculine crisis of middle age, the second is about the anxiety that men feel when women take on jobs that traditionally belonged to them, or about the doubts of many of them about the way in which advancing in their careers affects their role as mothers. The idea does not even end up being as progressive as Bird probably intended - here is a movie that, in full 2018, seems to treat the image of a man changing diapers as a tricky anomaly - but still the premiere of a superhero movie more concerned about the tribulations inherent to family life that for the fate of humanity continues to be as subversive now as it was then.