If the world view of the first part of "Invincible Destruction King" is an ancient collage of "game hall + local area network", then when "Invincible Destruction King 2" came to the real information age, the audience has already changed from a kind of A fairytale-like dislocation of time and space transitions into a more real world.
Therefore, perhaps the audience can put aside the complex real references (mainly manifested in the difficult class division and the strictly limited real life choices of the protagonist Ralph) when appreciating the first film, and completely indulge in the nostalgia and fantasy created by the film in the atmosphere. Then when it came to the second Internet with richer personal experience, those life experiences with subtle anxiety colors were easily inspired. Although this series of carnival comedy animations are as bright as ever, the dark background behind them is even stronger.
In the more vast and bright online world, Ralph, whose function is to "destroy", no longer has a place to place himself. Obviously, this sequel does not have the perfect ending. The creator looks back at the melancholy of "reality" in "virtual".
"Virtual" or "Real"
Although "Wrecking King 2" is inevitably compared with the equally popular "Ready Player One" at the beginning of the year, in fact, the worldviews constructed by the two are vastly different.
In Ready Player One, the relationship between virtual and reality constructed by Spielberg is very clear: technology is a force of reality, and the virtual world is created and defined by technology; the struggle within the virtual world is a reflection of the struggle in the real world; ultimately Conclusion: Defend the purity of the virtual world, but not the real world.
We seem to be able to get a vague "go back to reality" life lesson from the joke at the end. But in fact, the virtuality created by technology, as an existence separated from reality, has cut the actual life time. In this way, the world view of "Ready Player One" is that "virtual" and "reality" are completely divided, and the ending is the one-way control of "virtual" over "reality".
number one player
"Invincible Destruction King" is significantly different.
In the first part, the film is basically a completely closed virtual world. It does not insist on distinguishing the virtual and the real, but buries the complex relationship of real life into the characterization and relationship of the virtual world, so that non-players can also obtain abundant emotional commonality and game experience.
In the second part, this complex intertwined relationship between virtual and reality is brought closer to the audience in the network imagination. As a "virtual" protagonist in a closed program, he accidentally fell into this cyberspace, which has a more direct interaction with the "real". Is the network real or virtual? How to distinguish whether the protagonist's actions are virtual or real? The creator did not directly give a standard answer from the beginning to the end, but through the rich plot and imaginative technological visualization, he led the audience to reach various points of contradiction, hesitation and loss, and explore the relationship between the two.
The "virtual" as the representation of "reality"
It is true that the basic frame of the film's world view is designed according to the process of network technology, but the creators also reflect the same realistic logic in the virtual world in various details. These curious ingenuity not only serve as a representation of the real world, but also tear open the gap between watching the "reality" from the "virtual" from another twisted perspective.
The most basic is the setting of "species" in different worlds. In the first installment, the humans outside the console are clearly more "real" than the characters inside. In the second installment, the "humans" in the online world are constructed as a group of square-headed objects with fixed expressions, neat movements, and much lower motor abilities than the real world. Ralph and Vanellope, as virtual world characters that have gradually become outdated, are much more vivid than these people from the real world. And at special plot points, such as when Ralph needs more likes, these real-world humans are completely controlled by the characters in the virtual world. They can't choose where they want to go. They can only passively watch and send "likes" in their hands. .
At this point, we see a very different point in the world of the Internet and the world of game consoles. In the game hall, the uncontrolled steering wheel shows more of a "fantasy" style; in the Internet, this state of users being manipulated is no longer a fictional bridge, but an objective fact under the control of big data , which is a "sci-fi" color derived from a solid reality basis. The kind of dolls that are unified by the online world into a square head and a small torso also vaguely fit the single state of people being gradually assimilated by data technology.
Equally interesting is the space setting of the film, which is also closely related to the division of labor between virtual characters who travel through different spaces. On the surface of the online world, we see a prosperous picture of "people" flowing like weaving, bright and orderly. One of the most representative is undoubtedly the short video App community. All the real-world users flocked to the video tower in the center to sing and dance to give every "like", and the whole hall was as excited as the stock market - although the moment of like in real life may only be a few tired threads Just a wry smile. Sister Zan, who controls the algorithm, is only a manager who looks at Ralph in terms of the number of likes and traffic rankings and pursues the company's operating efficiency and interests.
In the square outside the high-rise building, we see the same mixed crowd as in real life. Pop-up people running around with billboards, as if we have seen flyers or English course salesmen countless times in subway stations and shopping malls - but they are more efficient and tireless as a program enthusiasm for work. In the story, he not only took us into the shanty town of spam advertising websites not far from the surface, but also directly reached the dark web buried deep underground, and this dark and narrow area also indirectly triggered the final huge crisis .
The space for efficient and clean operation on the surface of the Internet only seems to cover up the deep surging undercurrent. The underground society characterized by filth, sickness and destruction is not outside the Internet, but a part of this huge system full of contradictions. The identity crisis of "good people" and "bad people" in the first part is presented again through a larger space setting.
Therefore, our protagonist Ralph is bound to experience a choice again, but this time the choice has its own unique way of fermenting in the Internet.
"Virtual" anti-guest-based
Ralph has been an outlier in gaming systems since the first installment. As a virtual fixture, he is unwilling to be confined to the position of the "bad guy", thus opening a journey across spatial isolation. After a whole set of crises erupted and resolved, he also gained the respect of others in his community, although he did not change his villain setting in the game.
Along with Ralph's chicken soup in the workplace, Vanellope, as the once noble princess of Sugar Rush, completed the natural transition from upper class to "mortal" very naturally. In the midst of such an easy life change, Vanellope may have never really understood how hard it was for Ralph to be a "good guy" as a regular guy defined as a "destroyer".
Ralph's purpose from start to finish is simple: to help Vanellope rebuild an outdated game. Although he once longed for a different life, as a virtual character of the old era, he relied on a stable enough local game space. In a game hall with few changes and many restrictions, his interdependence with Vanellope persists in a stable way—even if the connection is often only achieved by looking at each other from afar.
As a program, on the one hand, he has to exercise the set rules, and on the other hand, his "anthropomorphic" real emotions are not accommodated by the program itself. So as a "saboteur", helping to "fix" the procedure—that is, finding the steering wheel is his best way to bridge the gap.
Thus, when Vanellope refused to go back, for Ralph, the presence of the steering wheel completely lost the sense of direction. His non-programmed "human" side was stripped of a large chunk of Vanellope's departure. The program that takes actual control of the virtual world not only defines his place in the arcade, but also takes Vanellope away from him in a technologically advanced way by offering her seemingly broader life choices. His anger is not as it appears in the lines, that Vanellope is "poisoned", but because if Vanellope leaves, the beautiful "human" life with complete experience that he has finally built up will collapse.
Audiences who have watched "Inside Out" must not be unfamiliar. This sense of loss and deprivation of "anger" is normal for a real ordinary person. But what is intriguing is that, just as an old-fashioned villain's "earth-flavored video" can be remembered, ridiculed, watched, stared at, and finally amassed a lot of wealth by the new era of the Internet, Ralph is so natural when facing lost emotions. ”, can also be easily captured by the programs of the Internet world and amplified into a terrorist crisis.
Empty Ralph was judged 100% vulnerable by the virus and multiplied indefinitely enough to engulf the entire internet. At this time, Ralph's "destruction" attribute and the inherent destructiveness of Internet programs quietly overlap, and what is projected by this loophole is a deeper level of fear and anxiety that permeates the entire Internet - this anxiety is not earned all day long What can be expressed by the traffic-savvy sister Zan, the game-oriented sister Shan and the courteous Mr. Search Engine, it is hidden in the hostility of the comment area and buried deep in the desire for destruction on the dark web. More through the screen, it is reflected in the exhaustion, tension and boredom of all real human beings who use social networks.
To a certain extent, such a huge "destruction" is not an accident under certain conditions, but an inevitable necessity for real "people" to be released and relieved under the rule of the standardized Internet rules of virtual network technology. The fundamental conflict between the repression of the human body and the efficient functioning of the rational process. The ghost of Ralph, who has densely covered the entire cyberspace, is not the "King of Destruction" that people fear, but the anxiety itself of everyone in cyberspace. Like Ralph, people think that they have the greatest degree of freedom in the Internet, but they cannot break free from this fundamental program structure.
Ralph had a tougher problem than in the arcade.
Once he thought he could gain the same social recognition as a "bad guy", his ability to destroy brought about the Coke Mentos Beacon that spewed out in the first film, a solution to Vanellope's life crisis, a life Re-examine and expand the way. Here, "destruction" has the power to repair and rebuild on the other side.
However, into the more tightly programmed world of the Internet. His "destruction" lost its effectiveness, and he could only be resolved and corrected as a disaster, a mistake. His ability has been solidified once again, and his conflicting side with the program can already be corrected and buried by the program - just as the dark web and pop-up windows are suppressed underground.
This is no longer something that an old-time program/"person" like him can save himself. Continuing to see Vanellope from a distance through a video phone is his only self-consolation.
Virtual programs and real people blend together in Ralph. But the highly developed Internet program logic fermented the emotions of this real overflowing person and practiced it into a grand show of self-healing. In the end, the positive aspect of "disruption" can only continue to exist in the game arcade, and the virtuality of the Internet has engulfed the needs of real people.
Re-inquiry of "reality"
From the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the perspective of "Invincible Destruction King 2" is reversed.
It first gives "programs" the characteristics of people in the real world, so that the audience can resonate with the attributes of "people". Looking back, starting from the characters of the fusion of virtual and reality, the audience can reflect on the self-personality in life. The process of refining the internal logic of the virtual world is also the process of completing the description of the external world. There is a complex interaction between virtual and reality.
The virtual world is no longer a purely programmed, rigid, neutral tool for human manipulation, and the human real world is no longer a fully active and fulfilling subject. The virtual world not only becomes a projection of human society, but also controls people themselves through the ruling logic of human society; people's emotions are blurred in the virtual world, and after being processed and manipulated, they react to reality.
In the process of "virtual" anti-customer, the creator is not limited to the infatuation with the virtual, but completes the re-inquiry of the real world. When the boundary between virtual and reality is gradually blurred, the value judgment of "false" and "real", "progress" and "backward", "rational" and "emotional" will inevitably face the same loss, the story of "Internet Lost" It must be a re-identification of these layers of duality—even if it’s just an implicitly pessimistic attempt.
What appears at the end of the film is probably the darkest animated feature Easter egg.
Rabbits who are safely fed in the children's mini-game can only eat muffins according to the program. When Ralph arrives to make trouble, he is forced to eat countless muffins. The movie finally covered up the messy blood in the virtual world with the screams of the little girl.
What about real humans? When humans are limited by the data rules of the Internet, they can only eat the information "muffins" given by countless algorithms, can they say "no"? In this game of human and program, what will be their outcome?
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