Movie review: Wreck-it Ralph

I was looking forward to this movie for quite some time: a tribute to old school gaming? With cameos by actual gaming icons?? Sonic, Zangief, M. Bison, Q-bert, Dr. Robotnik??

YES.

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it again: 2012 is the year of the geeks, and the era of the geeks will most likely continue for some time. Hollywood just discovered a huge goldmine.

Wreck-it Ralph is simply great. There are plenty of shoutouts to video games and a lot of love has gone into it. This is by far, one of the best video game themed movies in a long, long time.

Resident Evil can suck it.

Especially her! If you know what I mean...

The marketing for the movie IS a bit misleading, the trailers and ads make it look like the various licensed video game characters get a lot of screen time, but they don’t. Most of them are merely cameos, appearing for a few seconds, or a few minutes at most.

But, even if you are not a gamer, fret not, beneath its video game tribute shell lays a story that has a big heart.

The story is about Ralph, who is a Bad Guy in an old-school arcade game, called Fix-it Felix Jr.

After doing his job for 30 years, he feels unappreciated by the denizens of the game, the Nicelanders. Despite the fact that, without him, the game would not function at all. At least Felix still treats him nice.

Hell, on the 30^th anniversary of the game, the Nicelanders didn’t even bother to invite him. Seriously, they’re fucking dicks.

Those 8-bit assholes.

I mean, come on, Ralph is a fucking saint. As Zangief puts it, “You are a Bad Guy, but you are not a bad guy.”

Ok, that may be a bit confusing, but if you watch the movie, you will get the meaning of the message.

So, after the Nicelanders, especially the biggest fucking dick of all, Gene, refuse to accept him, Ralph decides to go prove his worth, which sets the whole story in motion.

The top asshole.

Along his journey, Ralph visits Hero’s Duty, which is kinda like a sci-fi-ish Call of Duty/Medal ofHonour/Battlefield as an on-rails light gun arcade game and Sugar Rush, a Japanese Daytonna USA/Super Mario Kart game, where he meets the like of Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun and Vanellope von Schweetz.

The storyline is simple enough, detailing Ralph’s journey to become a hero, despite his label as the Bad Guy. The Aesop of the story is pretty much: Be Yourself, though I felt that it was done as well as it should.

However, what Wreck-it Ralph does well is presenting the characters, especially the brother-sister relationship that Ralph eventually develops with Vanellope, which is honestly freaking adorable. She was annoying at first though, but watching their relationship develop was one of the many great joys of the movie.

Aww....

And I love John C. Reilly’s voice acting and the characterization for Ralph, it’s just so easy to feel for the big guy, who gets outcasted in his own game for doing his damn job, and is still a gentle and nice guy despite all of the shit he is given for over THIRTY years.

Look at that!!! I just wanna give him a big hug.

Seriously, Nicelanders…everyone hates you. Please go die.

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Though I was really looking forward to this movie, I was afraid that this movie would not live up to my expectations.

But, as it turns out, it was a lot better than I thought. Sure, it was a bit slow at first, but it picked up the pace in the 2^nd act, and it was a helluva ride.

And just in time for Christmas too, almost. Definitely a must watch.