Wreck-it-Ralph 2 - Ralph Breaks the Internet Review

**Spoiler Warning** 

You've been warned

I didn't watch "Wreck-it-Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet" in the theater and I'm glad that I didn't. Seeing all the characters that we're invested in was great, I wish we could have seen more of Fix-it Felix and his Lady Love, however we had to endure through a Ralph infested King Kong (no joke), to the point he even took Vanellope up to the highest tower. I'm so disappointed in the writing and the direction that this movie took, I couldn't even get through the extended features because all I could keep thinking was "who let these fools do this?!"

The movie starts with Ralph and Vanellope shooting-the-shit in the arcade, you can tell from the start that Ralph is happy right where he is; he's never had a real friend and Vanellope fulfills a lot in his life for him. Vanellope on the other hand, has the need for more - she's looking for that "need for speed" fix, an adventure, she wants more than what she has. In expressing this, she tells Ralph that she knows all the tracks and secrets in her game, suggesting that it's boring to her. Wanting Vanellope to be happy, Ralph jumps to action creating his bestest friend a new track in her game... however, the human players playing Vanellope end up breaking the steering wheel of the game and Mr. Litwak has no choice but to unplug the game, he can't afford what a new steering wheel would cost...

Leaving all of Vanellope's game characters stranded and without hope, the community comes together to re-home the characters while Ralph and Vanellope decide to travel through the unknown "WIFI" and head to the internet to get the steering wheel! It's a cute journey to see Ralph and Vanellope go to the internet and find eBay so that they can get their steering wheel. There was someone else there bidding on the wheel, which made me think that could have been explored more. However, Vanellope and Ralph (not understanding they're bidding money, not just the highest number) they end up out-bidding each other which is cringe-worthy and then they have to learn the hard way that they have to pay with money... over $2,000.00 dollars...

It was a cute idea to have them go back to the pop-up add to earn money playing video games, and I enjoyed watching Vanellope race Shank, but I didn't feel like Vanellope belonged there - it was so different from her aesthetics; I think a better story could have been where Vanellope takes what she learned in the game with Shank and brought it to her own game. I was so highly disapointed when she decided to stay with Shank and the game she loved so much (FYI: there's a song devoted to this game and it's ridiculous) the whole time I was thinking how the game was based off of Grand Theft Auto.

It was so sweet how Ralph did so much to earn the money for Vanellope's game, while she was off talking with Shank (to me, at this point, she had given up on her game and fellow characters). I was extremely disappointed in Vanellope; I understand chasing a dream, but how she did it wasn't right. I hated the scene when Ralph calls Vanellope and Ralph overhears Vanellope talking with Shank, I felt Ralph's pain. At this point, I really wanted Ralph to make sure the wheel got back to Litwak's Arcade and let Vanellope go through this journey. I didn't appreciate how the movie made Ralph out to be the bad guy - it was never even addressed how Vanellope was willing to throw away the game, because she wasn't making a single effort to get the wheel to Litwak's she was off chasing her high at the racing track with Shank.

Then, Ralph travels to the "dark web" and meets the most disturbing character that I've ever seen come from Pixar - made me think Disney was crazy for attaching their name to this! The character was repulsive and apparently, wasn't created for the audience, but was created for the sole purpose of making one of the artists skin crawl - great job Pixar - you would have done better if you had made a movie for your target audience instead of yourselves... much like Vanellope wouldn't you say? Back to the point, Ralph decides he wants to put a virus in Shanks game and in doing so, he actually makes the game have to reboot. Which we learned from the last movie, that anyone not in code of the original game will be lost. Again, Ralph being the hero, goes to save his friend Vanellope...

However, once she learns that he released the virus, in her rage she takes off and the virus is seen sneaking out of the game and into the internet - where it copies Ralph's insecurities and if you thought the movie was bad before this, it gets even worse! Then, the virus makes replicas of the insecurity in Ralph, who doesn't want to lose his friend, and the replicas go after Vanellope... it goes from bad to even worse when they all join together to make the King Kong version of Ralph and they take Vanellope... Ralph attempts to save his friend and then, through movie magic, once Ralph isn't insecure about their friendship anymore, magically the big-bad disappears... leaving Ralph and Vanellope to figure out their friendship and how their going to work through it...

Vanellope decides to stay with Shank and Ralph returns home, they talk through their phones and it's just really sad to me that she just turned her back on everyone else to pursuit "her dream". Like I said before, I'm happy that she fell in love with the game, but she could have taken this back to her game and incorporated it to make her game better too, maybe even given it internet access so people playing in the arcade could challenge people online too. But, no - she left Ralph and everyone - so we're teaching the youth of today to chase their dreams no matter what, turn your back on anyone else and go live your selfish lives, so the people who have invested their time and love in you are left to only a few minutes once in a while on the phone - great job Pixar - way to teach great morals.

Final Thoughts:

Let's put it this way, I haven't blogged about the movies or shows I've been watching in a long time. Only recently I had thought about starting to blog again. However, this movie made me so irritated, that I needed an outlet to vent and here it was. I don't recommend this movie, I'm sad that I bought this movie, I shouldn't have wasted my hard earned money.

There are some great scenes, I particularly love the 1st half of the movie up until they split-up (when Vanellope goes to be a pop-up ad). I did hear a lot about the Disney characters and when she went to Oh My Disney, it was awesome - I wish they could have had more time there to explore more characters, but all the reviews I watched said that these scenes stole the show and I have to agree. I did like the scene with the princesses and at the end when they worked together, maybe at times way over the top, but it was still fun to see them all together like that in the movie.

However, once Ralph goes to the dark-web and Vanellope's song, I lost interest in the movie. I'm surprised that the movie took the direction that it did and there wasn't anyone keeping the creators in-check. It's just sad to see a movie when you know it could have been so much better!

imdb - Ralph Breaks the Internet