Incredibles

Incredibles

I went to see the Incredibles yesterday. I liked it a lot. As superhero movies go, I appreciate it in this sense:

A movie that introduces a superhero (or even just an exotic character) tends to spend a lot of its time on exposition and backstory. A lot of movie is spent explaining just how that superhero came to be. Sometimes you wonder just who benefits from such exposition. In some cases, it's a necessary part of the mythos of a character, especially if the character is adapted from another medium. On the downside, it can be a tedious if you're already acquainted with the character, and can be especially tedious if the exposition is done clunkily, or done in a way that is trying to write down to an audience....

Spider-Man, for example, spends pretty much the first hour with Peter Parker getting spider-bit, learning about his powers, wrestling Macho Man Randy Savage and then letting Uncle Ben get killed before actually becoming "Spider-Man."

In the first Christopher Reeve Superman flick, we spend forever and a day watching Krypton finish its run before Kal El even gets sent to Earth, and then its an hour and a half of awkwardness as Clark Kent grows, gets his morals from Jonathan and Martha, and then goes to Metropolis.

The Hulk was even worse, because before Ang Lee could show how Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk, he has to show how Young Bruce Banner becomes Older, Tormented Bruce Banner.

It's not limited to the costumed superhero dept....Zorro, Robocop, Tarzan...most heroes, I guess, we get treated to having to find out exactly how these people got to be different from everybody else [as well as the viewer] before we can actually get down to the business of being a superhero. As an aside, I think it's why I like the Caspar Van Dien Tarzan and the Lost City movie, because it just starts with the story of Tarzan and the Lost City, and doesn't spend so much time explaining the whole Tarzan backstory.

I'm wandering off point. What I'm trying to say is that a certain amount of exposition is fine, even necessary. But a lot of superhero type movies get ruined when the makers spend too much time explaining just how these people came to be when they should be telling the story they want to tell. And a lot of movies want to give exposition, when there isn't really any needed (the first Superman movie again comes to mind...all the Smallville stuff is cool, but I felt like that movie should have started with Clark first coming to Metropolis).

I like the Incredibles because it doesn't waste any time with unnecessary exposition. The Incredibles just jumps right into the world of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, and doesn't spend any time explaining how Bob and Helen Parr came to be superheroes. Another movie might have been otherwise tempted. The Incredibles just tells the story that it wants to tell, and I appreciate Brad Bird for that.