2018 animated sequel
Rating: 12/20 (Buster: 17/20)
Plot: After Ralph, in an act of friendship, puts in motion a series of events that will break Sarah Silverman's arcade game, the duo venture into the World Wide Web to search for a replacement part. They have a series of adventures.
Before the feature, there was a little introduction with the directors and a producer or somebody where one of them--a director, I believe--says something about how it was really difficult to squeeze everything they loved about the Internet into this movie. That might actually explain one of the main issues with this movie. It's far too busy, and not just visually, although it's just as jumbled and exhausting as Ready Player One because you almost feel like looking for Easter eggs instead of paying attention to the meanderings of the story and its characters. It really does seem like they brainstormed a list of "Things on the Internet" on a whiteboard during writing and then tried to shove every single one of those things into the movie.
But I also want to know just what the writers/directors love about the Internet. You've got Ebay sniping, video game time wasters, references to ultra-violent rated-M games reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, viruses, the dark web, loads of pop-up advertisements, buffering, the lack of originality of content creators, autofilling search engines, and maybe even stolen identities. I'm actually having trouble recalling a single moment in this that celebrates any of the virtues of the Internet. It does have a lot of advertising, including a lot of Disney stuff. In fact, are they appallingly advertising their own upcoming streaming service or was that just my imagination?
Additionally, the overall theme appears to be that the Internet can ruin friendships. If anything, I'd say this movie is more anti-Internet than a love letter to it.
The world-building for the Internet is often creative and visually wondrous, almost a cross between the colors and detail of something like Coco and the creativity of Riley's imagination in Inside Out. There are lots of clever bits throughout this, and a lot of it is really funny. And I really enjoyed a lot of the visuals. The aforementioned GTA game--called Slaughter Race--gives the animators an excuse to show off some grittier video game animation and a cool car chase. I also really liked the look of the virus although the consequences of that got very silly with a film allusion that's probably a little too tired. The makers of this are good at creating a few moments that will have adults at least nodding in recognition and maybe even chuckling. Kids will enjoy the colors and the shenanigans of the goofy-voiced characters. And people like me--neither adult or child--will appreciate references to the old Tron arcade game and Qbert.
I do mostly like the two central characters and a lot of the auxiliary characters. John C. Reilly is always somebody I like seeing or hearing although his character has moments where I'm not really sure what to think. I really like Sarah Silverman, too. Their characters make for a touching duo here, and when this story focuses on their friendship, this is very likable. Unfortunately, it splinters off in all these different directions and gets a little too nutsy for anybody used to playing their video games with nothing but a joystick and a button.
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