WRECK-IT RALPH [2012]

HALVE-IT RALPH


2012, USA
Rich Moore
6 // 10

Is a drop of Pac-Man nostalgia enough to carry a whole film? Could American cinema come up with an interesting concept and stick-the-bloody-hell to it? Am I an oracle or what? There's only one way to find out!

All right, all right, it was a long distance flight, okay? And Hotel Transylvania turned out to be just as engaging as expected. I lasted about ten minutes actually. Then again, there was a bit of a stir about Ralph in the geekosphere in recent months so it seemed like a good idea to have a look for myself, in case it was any good. And it was. To some extent. As so many a film before it, Wreck-it Ralph has a certain condition. It's called hollywoodosis repetitia schematulum and, regretfully, is very common. The pattern is as follows: a man has an idea. It is a good idea. A man submits his idea to a committee for approval/development and the committee says 'yeah, it's all right, but let's not get too crazy here. We're going to sell it as a family fun movie, so here, boy, that's the template.'

- or - 

A man has an idea. It is a good idea, but it's only an idea to start with. A man is lacking inspiration how to keep up with the good idea. A man reaches for the template.

And the template killed the film. Really. You watch the first half smiling to yourself, loving the references, dialogues, visuals and hoping for something fresh and new. Then you spend the second half of the film feeling nauseous from the over-repeated clichés and at times even violently sick from the typical in-your-face Disney  moralising didacticism. *BURP* oh, pardon me, it has been a few weeks now but it still tastes foul. What. A. Shame. It didn't heave to be like that. To start with, the characters are great (Ralph being a bit of an involuntary anti-hero, Felix and his friends being a bit of bunch of knob-heads), the ideas are geeky and clever (game jumping, villain sessions), and in general, the whole build up promises so much but that's about it. Once the world of Wreck-it Ralph is drawn and coloured in, the fun dies. The story becomes a painfully bog standard, run of the mill affair and all that inventive and original world building is being completely wasted. It's like a roller-coaster ride, when after a full of anticipation climb to the top of the track, you suddenly find yourself sitting in a tramway on your morning commute to work. Bad Disney!

So there you have it. A product that will pull the strings of your oldskul gaming nostalgia only to thrust you into the safe and hundreds of times revisited arms of American template for a family entertainment. The kids will love it. The adults will get lured in and then lulled. Considering the cost of the plane ticket, not really worth the admission. Then again, small and blurry screen would probably not give justice to the Cloud Atlas, or even Argo, so maybe I shouldn't complain too much. Won't be looking out for the DVD release though.