It’s not my intention to write much about new movies on this blog. Other people handle that business just fine on other sites, and I’m more interested in looking at the movies that other people aren’t talking about. But let me sidestep that quasi-rule for just a moment.
I want to write a little about The Incredibles, because it absolutely blew me away.
T. and I made a special trip to the Silver City last night for the new Pixar movie. We both had high expectations because literally everything Pixar has ever done has entertained us enormously. The trailers looked great. The reviews for the film mostly gushed. Everything pointed to a pretty marvelous film.
And that’s the word that tells the whole story: marvelous. Because I can’t remember the last time that I saw a movie that so affectionately bundled all of the conventions of action, adventure, comic book and science fiction films into such a satisfying whole. It’s the perfect recipe really: equal parts of Superman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Unbreakable and James Bond, with a passing reference to Star Wars for good measure. A completely breath-taking adventure film to make 10-year boys fall on their asses. And a full-bodied movie-theatre experience at that. Quite literally the best thing that Pixar has ever done.
The hero is probably Brad Bird. Anyone who has seen Iron Giant, already knows that Bird has the ability to tap right into the life-force of the 10-year old audience. He knows what fantasies are spinning in their heads. Chances are good that those same fantasies are still spinning in his. I’ve read that getting The Incredibles on the screen was at least a 12-year process for Bird, but watching it, it’s pretty evident that it was a lifetime of pulp stories and piles upon piles of comic books that got him there. This movie is made up of all of those things that make every little boy crazy with excitement. The roots of the story were as transparent as glass.
And that, I think, is what made the movie so appealing for me. T. loved it because it was Pixar and because it was a really good film, sure. That’s probably what the critics are responding to also. But I don’t think everyone will tap into the undercurrent that hooked me, and that will hook most of the Spider-man reading, Star Wars playing full-grown kids out there. For this audience, the movie is every comic book movie (even those that disappointed) made perfect. [Frozone’s ice slides? My God, why couldn’t they have pulled that off in X-Men?] The film pays homage to the best comic book stories but then turns around and makes them better. Makes them more accessible. Makes them (strange to say for a CG-animated kids film) more grounded.
I don’t expect that many people reading this blog are familiar with Astro City: a comic book created by Kurt Busiek that explores the super hero culture from a more realistic (and sometimes civilian) perspective. Busiek’s book rests on characters instead of super-powers, circumstances instead of big plots. The stories are built on years of comic book tradition, but always take the route that isn’t usually explored. Consequently, the stories are always fresh and exciting, but strikingly familiar. The Incredibles might very well be one of the super-teams living in Astro City.
And so it is that the experience got me to thinking a little bit about comic book movies in general. Live action movies specifically. There were a lot of things that The Incredibles did right that will raise the bar for upcoming comic book films. First, I thought it was a great idea to dispense with any kind of origin stories for the heroes. For too long now, it seems that comic book movies have slipped into a formula that demands a fleshed-out origin for every new character. It slows the movie down and who really cares? I don’t think anyone watches a new superhero smashing a wall and says, "What? How is that possible? OK, science accident? Now, I understand." The origin doesn’t matter if the rest of the film adds up.
Something else that puts The Incredibles over the top are those wonderful action sequences. Granted that the world of CG storytelling doesn’t have the earthly restrictions that keep the Spider-man or the X-Men movies grounded (though let’s be honest: most of the action in those movies is CG-generated anyhow,) but it’s all about the creativity really. The use of powers in this film never stopped surprising me. And for someone who’s read, literally, thousands and thousands of comic books, a little originality is enough to carry the film a long, long way.
Finally, and most importantly, the movie was not about stopping the villain. Yes, there was a villain and an over-arching (and diabolical) plot to push the heroes into action. But the villain was really just the sub-plot in this film, necessary only as a framework on which to hang the more important elements of the story: the family, the mid-life crisis, the challenge of putting the glory-days behind you. Like most Pixar films, there was a stronger story underneath the obvious one. This is also true of the best comic books. In a perfect world, it would be true of the best comic book movies (Spider-man and X-Men come closest, but that’s because they are largely interpretations of the comic book stories that are already out there.) Watching a hero in spandex grapple with a villain in armor is not enough to make a movie good. Comic book readers may be simple cats, but we aren’t simpletons.
[At the very least, things are looking very bleak for the Fantastic Four movie. They’ve been scooped. It will take the best live-action comic book movie ever just to put them in competition with The Incredibles. Pretty unlikely.]
And then there are the depths of adulthood and parenting themes that played on notes that I wouldn’t have appreciated when I was 10. This, I think, it what put The Incredibles in its own stratosphere. A 10-year old boy will love the action. But a 31-year old boy with a wife, a job, and a toddler will be able to enjoy the entire package.
I’ve gushed enough for now. And I haven't even talked about how unbelievably advanced the animation seemed (miles beyond Finding Nemo even.) Another time, maybe. Or not.
This week’s Monday night movie (which was also marvelous, for different reasons of course) was Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour. I expect to have some thoughts posted on that movie in the next day or so.
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