ralph breaks the internet review
what an awful movie - such a let down from the first which was honestly one of the most refreshing and interesting movie premises ive seen
i didn't give that much thought to this when i first saw the trailer - it didn't really seem interesting from the trailer because of all the like, expanded world which didn't seem to make that much sense? also what's the deal with making disney princesses like, more accessible lmao
tbh i'm not even gonna put that much thought in telling you how bad this was but i'll just point out my biggest shit with the movie
the whole introduction and premise for the internet is like, the family friendly sanitised version of what it is supposed to be
what really grinds my gears right - the whole premise of the movie is like this :
I’m not sure it’s possible.
Ralph Breaks the Internet depicts internet brands the way a nephew gives a funeral elegy for his racist uncle: focusing on the one or two good times, leaving out the penchant for slurs. In the film, Twitter isn’t an echo chamber for hate; it’s just a bunch of folks harmlessly sharing pet pics! YouTube isn’t a distribution channel for extremist views; it’s just an interactive expansion of America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Sure, it’s a kids movie, so the world’s ails will get sandpapered into oblivion. But Ralph Breaks the Internet betrays the truth that few places online are more absurd and unsettling than “kid internet,” home of algorithmic nursery rhymes and the Paul brothers. The closest the film intentionally gets to the internet of today, as seen by a modern tween, is a wink at Fortnite, which, while culturally inescapable, has already had its moment.
So who is this movie for?
The film is too disconnected with the actual internet to appeal to millenials, and too oblivious to kid internet to target children. Ralph Breaks the Internet doesn’t depict the internet as it actually is, rather as how an out-of-touch adult perceives it to be through the eyes of their teenage daughter or son.
Disney filled the movie with parental pun humor and references to long-dead web brands like GeoCities and Friendster. It might spend more time on eBay jokes than The 40-Year-Old Virgin, a film that IMDb tells me was released in 2005.
I suppose the audience is Gen-Xers, many of whom experience the internet via a handful of apps, and perhaps their children, for whom a dozen jokes about pop-up ads spark a certain nostalgia for teaching Mom and Dad how to delete cookies off the home computer.
The film culminates with an unexpected and sentimental tug on the heartstrings for parents who have recently sent their children off to college, so whether or not the film was made for Gen-Xers, it was certainly made by them.
i didn't give that much thought to this when i first saw the trailer - it didn't really seem interesting from the trailer because of all the like, expanded world which didn't seem to make that much sense? also what's the deal with making disney princesses like, more accessible lmao
tbh i'm not even gonna put that much thought in telling you how bad this was but i'll just point out my biggest shit with the movie
the whole introduction and premise for the internet is like, the family friendly sanitised version of what it is supposed to be
what really grinds my gears right - the whole premise of the movie is like this :
- vanellope is really bored, so she wants something new in life
- ralph like makes her a new track and she overrides it and breaks the machine when someone is playing it
- the owner of the place refuses to upgrade because it doesnt make enough money so now the game is in danger of shutting down
- ralph says - no worries about shutting it down we can be friends and you can live with me now - and BIG ARGUMENT is SHE LOVES HER GAME AND DOESNT WANT TO LEAVE IT
- so they go on this like super drawn out irrelevant and hyped up journey to buy the limited edition steering wheel on ebay - but they dont have the money
- they meet a bunch of different people and internet shit trying to get enough money to buy back her steering wheel : which is THE BIG GOAL right?
- ralph and vanellope start getting angry @ each other because they disagree on what to do on the internet
- turns out: she confesses to wanting to go to a cooler game called like, slaughter run with Gal Gadot which is like .... GTA but MMPORG which they met before and ralph got jealous over
^ remember, the whole reason they came here is because she loves her game and wants to stay in her game?
- then ralph is like hustling really badly to get enough money - they can afford the steering wheel but then he gets in with shady viral dudes and he becomes a virus because he's jealous of the fact that he's not her friend anymore and then disney princesses come in conveniently to save the day
- after he saves the game = she decides to be respawned in slaughter run, so she can play there forever
- end of the movie : sometimes they video call.
what a waste of a fucking movie.
also the whole point of the first movie --> ralph is being selfish leaving his game and leaving it to get unplugged and everyone shits on him for it
but when vanellope does it - ralph getting angry for her changing her mind is him as the bad guy?
what bullshit.
the whole point of the movie --> to save her game
end of the movie --> she never goes back to her game
2/10
watch the original
https://thenextweb.com/insider/2018/11/26/ralph-breaks-the-internet-review/?fbclid=IwAR1Nsf4Hia2OMC96RjMbbaU74xcuCLXwo5DDEW0tsp2lk0BB3z7a5QCx3fo
quote: ralph breaks the internet broke my damn heart.
The actual core of the film is about Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship, and how it’s teetering on a crossroads as she plans a move out of the arcade. Their friendship was the backbone of the first movie, so it shouldn’t have been very difficult to make it mean something here. Unfortunately, it’s undercut by both of their motives being massively unhealthy.
First, Vanellope wants to pick up and move to Slaughter Race, despite the first film’s entire plot hinging on what a bad idea it is to game-jump. Her justification is “No one will even miss me,” despite the film beginning with two young gamers talking about how much they love her. If she’s not in the game, then, new wheel or not, won’t the players assume the game is broken regardless, meaning Litwak will still unplug it?
You may say that sounds like nitpicking, except that’s exactly what Ralph did in the first movie, and the fact he came very close to leaving all his fellow characters homeless by making the game look broken was treated as a very grave betrayal.
Second, Ralph regresses in this movie into his old insecure self and practically hyperventilates at the thought that he and Vanellope will no longer be attached at the hip. He instantly dislikes Shank because she captures Vanellope’s attention, and becomes so jealous and upset at their budding connection he sets a virus on Slaughter Race in the hopes it’ll “slow things down” so Vanellope will become bored and come back to him.
Now let’s break this down a little bit. This is a digital world, but everything we’ve seen thus far is at least somewhat analogous to us in the regular world. Given how serious the virus is when it’s properly unleashed, this is basically the equivalent of a possessive guy unleashing smallpox on a city in the hopes it’ll give his friend’s new girlcrush the sniffles. And Ralph’s supposed to be the guy we’re rooting for?
I’m not saying a hero can never make a mistake. But there are mistakes, and then there are actions so reprehensible I find myself hoping Vanellope doesn’t forgive him.
The virus escapes its containment and copies Ralph’s “insecurities”, which are so extreme it leads to a World-War-Z-esque Megazord Virus Ralph DDOS-ing every major site on the internet. Defective code as a metaphor for human flaws? It’s not that it’s a bad metaphor — it’s just that, like everything else the movie is trying to tell us, it’s “newborn foal” levels of clumsy.
Everything else about the film is meant to tell kids that it’s okay if your friends don’t always share your dreams, and sometimes leave to pursue new opportunities. Trust me, I get it — the film is not subtle about delivering its message. It’s just that the plot holes and character inconsistencies undercut these positive messages by making the their actions look painfully unhealthy, destructive, and toxic.
also heres another quote from a review i agreed with :
How would they even make a family-friendly movie about the internet in 2018?https://thenextweb.com/insider/2018/11/26/ralph-breaks-the-internet-review/?fbclid=IwAR1Nsf4Hia2OMC96RjMbbaU74xcuCLXwo5DDEW0tsp2lk0BB3z7a5QCx3fo
quote: ralph breaks the internet broke my damn heart.
The actual core of the film is about Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship, and how it’s teetering on a crossroads as she plans a move out of the arcade. Their friendship was the backbone of the first movie, so it shouldn’t have been very difficult to make it mean something here. Unfortunately, it’s undercut by both of their motives being massively unhealthy.
First, Vanellope wants to pick up and move to Slaughter Race, despite the first film’s entire plot hinging on what a bad idea it is to game-jump. Her justification is “No one will even miss me,” despite the film beginning with two young gamers talking about how much they love her. If she’s not in the game, then, new wheel or not, won’t the players assume the game is broken regardless, meaning Litwak will still unplug it?
You may say that sounds like nitpicking, except that’s exactly what Ralph did in the first movie, and the fact he came very close to leaving all his fellow characters homeless by making the game look broken was treated as a very grave betrayal.
Second, Ralph regresses in this movie into his old insecure self and practically hyperventilates at the thought that he and Vanellope will no longer be attached at the hip. He instantly dislikes Shank because she captures Vanellope’s attention, and becomes so jealous and upset at their budding connection he sets a virus on Slaughter Race in the hopes it’ll “slow things down” so Vanellope will become bored and come back to him.
Now let’s break this down a little bit. This is a digital world, but everything we’ve seen thus far is at least somewhat analogous to us in the regular world. Given how serious the virus is when it’s properly unleashed, this is basically the equivalent of a possessive guy unleashing smallpox on a city in the hopes it’ll give his friend’s new girlcrush the sniffles. And Ralph’s supposed to be the guy we’re rooting for?
I’m not saying a hero can never make a mistake. But there are mistakes, and then there are actions so reprehensible I find myself hoping Vanellope doesn’t forgive him.
The virus escapes its containment and copies Ralph’s “insecurities”, which are so extreme it leads to a World-War-Z-esque Megazord Virus Ralph DDOS-ing every major site on the internet. Defective code as a metaphor for human flaws? It’s not that it’s a bad metaphor — it’s just that, like everything else the movie is trying to tell us, it’s “newborn foal” levels of clumsy.
Everything else about the film is meant to tell kids that it’s okay if your friends don’t always share your dreams, and sometimes leave to pursue new opportunities. Trust me, I get it — the film is not subtle about delivering its message. It’s just that the plot holes and character inconsistencies undercut these positive messages by making the their actions look painfully unhealthy, destructive, and toxic.
also heres another quote from a review i agreed with :
I’m not sure it’s possible.
Ralph Breaks the Internet depicts internet brands the way a nephew gives a funeral elegy for his racist uncle: focusing on the one or two good times, leaving out the penchant for slurs. In the film, Twitter isn’t an echo chamber for hate; it’s just a bunch of folks harmlessly sharing pet pics! YouTube isn’t a distribution channel for extremist views; it’s just an interactive expansion of America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Sure, it’s a kids movie, so the world’s ails will get sandpapered into oblivion. But Ralph Breaks the Internet betrays the truth that few places online are more absurd and unsettling than “kid internet,” home of algorithmic nursery rhymes and the Paul brothers. The closest the film intentionally gets to the internet of today, as seen by a modern tween, is a wink at Fortnite, which, while culturally inescapable, has already had its moment.
So who is this movie for?
The film is too disconnected with the actual internet to appeal to millenials, and too oblivious to kid internet to target children. Ralph Breaks the Internet doesn’t depict the internet as it actually is, rather as how an out-of-touch adult perceives it to be through the eyes of their teenage daughter or son.
Disney filled the movie with parental pun humor and references to long-dead web brands like GeoCities and Friendster. It might spend more time on eBay jokes than The 40-Year-Old Virgin, a film that IMDb tells me was released in 2005.
I suppose the audience is Gen-Xers, many of whom experience the internet via a handful of apps, and perhaps their children, for whom a dozen jokes about pop-up ads spark a certain nostalgia for teaching Mom and Dad how to delete cookies off the home computer.
The film culminates with an unexpected and sentimental tug on the heartstrings for parents who have recently sent their children off to college, so whether or not the film was made for Gen-Xers, it was certainly made by them.
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