Watched: July 2, 2019

Kegger Rating: 4 Star

MM Rating: 2 Star

Kegger’s Review:

At no time will sequel be better than the original.  Except maybe Ghostbusters 2, Toy Story 3, and Home Alone 2. 

That’s for MM. 

I’d been pleasantly surprised with Wreck-It Ralph when it came out – enough nostalgia, silliness and heart was the perfect combination for me.  I figured Ralph Breaks the Internet would be similar, but may not have the same kind of surprise as the first.  We know what to expect now, right? 

The opening takes us back to where we left off from the beginning.  Everything’s going great for our pair of friends, but it’s quite obvious early on that one of them isn’t happy with the status quo.  So…. You can kind of see where this one was going to be headed. 

Not the best for originality, but again, with a sequel, what else would you expect? 

What I loved – LOVED – was all of the references to the different areas of the internet, and the personification of those areas.  I’m not going to mention any of them, because part of the fun is recognizing them and having fun with them.

The writers did a really good job of expanding the universe for the characters, but beyond that, the story was a bit formulaic.  It was due to that formula that I was a bit board for about a third of the movie.  But still, by the end, I was involved in the story, and enjoyed it.

  MM’s Review:

I liked Ralph 1. It brought Toy Story to video games, and made loads of gaming references. John C Reilly and Sarah Silverman worked really well together, and I had fun with the story.

Okay, yes, the surge protector thing bugged me. But it’s a cartoon! Move along, MM.

So now we’re back, and the idea sounded great. #1 was about old school arcade gaming, but video games have evolved so much since then. Huge possibilities! Consoles, MMORPGs, could’ve thrown in some BBS to really keep the old school vibe going…

…and we got this.

It’s not that it’s a bad movie. It’s that there’s SO much missed potential.

Sure, it was fun to see internet sites personified, and maybe I should just be happy with that. They did show an MMORPG, but I guess it was a GTA ripoff? How do we not see Everquest or WoW? Oh right, because we needed a racing opportunity…which doesn’t make sense either.

Okay, enough of being pissy about the lost opportunities.

Our main characters still do a good job, but they’re basically asked to stand alone. We get some secondary personalities, but they aren’t as big and fun as the first time around.

How does a virus get into a TRON arcade box?

Stop it! Back to the review!

I’m not really clear on the theme either. I think it’s that you have to be able to spend time apart from your friends? Or trust them? Or not smother them? I don’t know.

It was okay. Really.