Ready Player One Takes and Thoughts Wanted

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changethel1ghts

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Just saw Ready Player One! I know the history of this thing, and expected this movie to be garbage. The only saving grace, in my opinion, was that it had the Spielg-boy at the helm.

I saw it, and thought it was a fun light-hearted film that was cohesive and well told. My main issue was that I felt it could have really said more about nostalgia, living in an awful world and escaping through virtual means, virtual relationships, etc.

Nevertheless, that's mainly me projecting what I wanted it to be. I just wish it had something to say beyond some surface level stuff. If it did have more to say, I wasn't seeing it. Regardless, it was a good time.

Anyways, I wanted to heat everyone's opinions after seeing the movie!

And yes, we know how they mishandled the Iron Giant.

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Whitestripes09

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I haven't seen it and I don't plan on seeing it.

I'm sure that it has its Spielberg moments of greatness and heart, but I just don't really buy into the whole nostalgia thing. Don't get me wrong, nostalgia can be a very powerful thing, but just seeing bits and pieces of your characters interacting together on screen without any purpose other than "how cool would it be if the Iron Giant got in a mech fight and the DeLorean and Akira Bike were racing." It feels empty and like it's heavily manicured by a boardroom of people that analyze what's popular in "geek culture" now and therefore choose what they should put in the movie. I'm sure there's a plot in there, but even the best plot doesn't cover up this feeling of exploitation I feel in my gut.

Also, I think I'm still just really pissed that a cringe worthy novel like Ready Player One can get turned into a movie, but we still haven't gotten cyberpunk/science fiction movies from other novels like Snow Crash or Neuromancer to have a chance on the big screen. I feel like those have much more unique ideas.

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Qrowdyy

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#3  Edited By Qrowdyy

As a guy who really liked the book when it first came out, I thought the movie was middling. They mishandling 3 very key elements of the book.

1) The dystopian future. The book really drove home how hopeless the real world had become. The dichotomy between the real world and the Oasis is what made the book work. In contrast, the movie barely touches on this at all.

2) Toning down ioi. Lets just say that, in the book, the big bad corporation is a lot bigger and a lot badder.

3) The pop culture references. The movie used a lot more modern references to appeal to a broader audience. A big mistake in my opinion. The setting of Ready Player One is so charming because of the wierd anachronistic 80s retro-future(in the Oasis).

Its easy to see why Spielberg and Warner Bros. made these changes. They wanted a movie with broader appeal, so they toned down the grimdark of the real world elements and modernized the pop culture references. The end result is a fun movie without much substance.

Here's my advice to anyone who wants to see it: Just sit back, don't think to much, and have a go at how many references you recognize.

@whitestripes09: My dude, those books came out 30 years ago. While both of those books are undoubtedly better than Ready Player One, they're too high concept for Hollywood. Consider the box-office failures of Blade Runner 2049 and Annihilation(both of which I like better than the movie we're discussing in this thread). No way they're gonna dust off the movie rights for Neuromancer after those high profile failures.

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Whitestripes09

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@qrowdyy: I don't think those books are as high concept as BR:2049 or Annihilation. Neuromancer is heavy on prose and I would say is a difficult read, but the actual plot and themes are pretty straight forward. It's a science fiction heist that involves AI, which I think people have a pretty big grasp on these days.

Snow Crash is so edgy and filled with irony, it's pretty much a satire. I don't really think a book with a main character named "Hiro Protagonist" is asking the audience to ponder over "the meaning of life or what is self". It's goofy and fun.

Really, I just think in this era of sequels and adaptations, that both of these books have such unique worlds it would be shame to not see them in some visual format.

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Humanity

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@whitestripes09: the problem with Snow Crash, like most Neal Stephenson novels, is the part where he talks about the genesis of the Bible for 50 pages or any other hyper specific field of study that he’s known to dive way too deep i to instead of furthering the narrative. Anathem is a great concept but an incredibly weak story that centers around math proofs which should be at the periphery of the plot of future monks, rather than front and center.

I haven’t seen Ready Player One but I’d like to see it. I’m not sure why people are so incredibly hostile towards pop culture references in a movie. When I was 12-15 I would have killed for a movie with all my favorite game and cartoon characters mashed into it with spectacular special fx. As an adult I dont mind it although I’m pretty sure the plot won’t really resonate with me all that much.

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echasketchers

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I really enjoyed it and was expecting to hate it. Haven't read the book so idk what the differences are, but it was a fun action adventure I thought. Went back to see it again in 3D yesterday, and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Its weird that some people are drawing a line in the sand over this movie using callbacks and references when every big movie does the same thing these days. At least this was telling a new story, just using visual references as a backdrop. My only real issue was that the romance plot line didn't really land, it felt rushed and unearned. But it wasn't a deal breaker for me at least.

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blackichigo

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I don't plan on seeing it. I loathed that book. It's bad enough reading about a guy ejaculating all over the 80s. I really don't want to watch someone do it on the 90s too.

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liquiddragon

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I don't know anything about the book, why it's a big deal, and why some ppl despise it so much. I went into the movie with a pretty blank slate, only knowing it'd have a lot of cultural references, particularly "geek" culture.

The movie does overwhelm you with surface level fandom but it didn't bother me as much because most of it I didn't grow up with or never got that deep into. It was nice to see stuff I do like flash before my eyes but those were few and far between. There was a Jim Raynor here and a hadouken there but because it was so heavily through the lens of Western nerdom, most of it glossed over me. I can see why it might bother some folks as a completely pandering nostalgic play but in the context of this all encompassing VR MMO, I thought it worked. Idk how I'd feel if it was loaded with more Japanese stuff, the things I grew up with, but having seen the movie, that stuff doesn't make or break the movie.

The film itself is a perfectly serviceable popcorn flick. It's kinda forgettable but it's hearts in the right place, it's not a lazy cash grab, and a lot of work and money went into it. This movie is about 70% CG so I wish the main characters were designed better cause you spend so much time with these pretty ugly looking avatars.

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FrostyRyan

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I've never seen so many incredible things in such a boring movie

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cikame

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I don't intend to see it, the trailers are awful and i don't think i've liked any Spielberg movies.
Scratch that just looked, Minority Report is pretty good.

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notnert427

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#12  Edited By notnert427

It was okay. My biggest issue with it was that a bunch of the references felt forced. There is a scene where the head of the evil corporation is getting fed pop culture references through an earpiece to try and convince the main character that he's not an out-of-touch square adult, which I found ironic because that's what a lot of the movie felt like it was doing to the audience. The video game stuff in particular had a "how do you do, fellow kids?" vibe to it.

Also, it was hilarious that the movie played up the angle that the girl in the virtual world could be "some guy in his mother's basement" and then shocker, she's pretty except for her apparently hideous birthmark. All of that was dumb. They could have actually said something there about superficiality, especially considering the main dude outright stated that he "loved" her no matter what before knowing what she really looked like, but no, they went "She's All That" with it and made an incredibly weak effort to make an obviously pretty girl "ugly" but totally-not-actually-ugly-because-it's-Hollywood and were in fact being superficial themselves by intimating that a birthmark is some shameful flaw. The whole thing came off poorly.

That said, the special effects were good (despite the weird faces on the avatars), and it was mostly fun enough. The story is fine, but ridiculously predictable. The acting is mostly solid. Mark Rylance was great, and T.J. Miller's character was surprisingly amusing. As a "summer blockbuster" type of movie, it does its job, but anyone expecting more than that will likely be very disappointed. 3/5 stars from me.

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JoeMarsden

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I enjoyed it. A lot. I enjoyed the book a lot too. It's fun, has a decent sense of humour and it's uplifting. Not a Spielberg fan either, so I don't think it has anything to do with that - I just enjoyed myself. I see a lot of vitriol on the internet about this movie because of the amount of stuff in it that is being referenced, but I don't really see how that can be any source of hatred really. I think some people just think they're being pandered to, or something? Weird.

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WasabiCurry

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It was a fairly boring movie and if you take away the references from the movie, it is a way below average movie. There was some entertaining scenes, but the way they handle the romantic option is pretty uh...let's say juvenile. The acting I found to be bad for the real life scenes. It is like no emotions in all of the real life scenes. For four bucks I spent seeing the movie, it is fine for what it is.

I rate this movie an offbrand candy out of 10. It is weak, bland, and lacks any real substance but you grabbed it for curiosity sake. You know that in the future the store will restock with better brand named candies and that offbrand candy will be simply forgotten.

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glots

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Not really that interested, but I can get a cheap ticket so maybe I’ll go see it if I’m really bored during the weekend. If only to see what that one scene set within a movie is like.

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monkeyking1969

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My thoughts...

The book was okay. That is really about it...it was okay. It had many of the issue that you find in pulpy science fiction and therefore after reading it I didn't think it said anything important. It certainly is a puzzle about why it become a phenomenon for a few months in nerdy reading circles. Then again this was around the same time, or a little before, Red Shirts which was equally as pulpy, neive was getting huge accolades while being medicour. I don't want to dump on either book, there are millions of worse books that have been written. And, it not Ernest Cline's fault that people elevated his book. It not Cline's fault he rode that wave of popularity as best he could. And it not his fault that one of America's greats directors -in his schlocky, sappy decline-took on directorial duties for the adaptation. Hell, it fits that a sappy book where the guy wins the girl as a prize was put on screen by Spielberg. Spielberg is simply that regressive in his 1950s 'I remember bringing Bobby Sue in her bobby-socks to the Soda shoppe' outlook of the world.

"Ouch"


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Tesla

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I'm just going to assume the movie is as insufferable as the book and not bother watching it. As far as I can tell the book was written by a robot whose prime directive was to cram in as many references per minute as possible.

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notnert427

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@tesla said:

I'm just going to assume the movie is as insufferable as the book and not bother watching it. As far as I can tell the book was written by a robot whose prime directive was to cram in as many references per minute as possible.

That's...pretty accurate. I spent roughly 1/3 of the movie wondering about the licensing nightmare that it must have been to shove all the crap in there that they did.

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BladeOfCreation

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@notnert427: I remember thinking, upon first hearing of this book, that it would be impossible for such a game to be made because of licensing. Then Pixels was a movie, then this book got turned into a movie, and now I'm not so sure.

And that's not a happy thought.

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ichthy

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I have such a viscerally negative reaction towards the book that I don't think I can bring myself to watch the movie, even if general consensus seems to be that the premise works better visually.

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eazeapeazea

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The Feminist Frequency podcast perfectly articulated what I hated about the movie: The tendency of gatekeeping by a certain faction of nerddom, where they judge how worthy you are of their presence by how much pop culture minutiae you know. This happens a lot in this movie.

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VincentVendetta

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tl;dr: Not a disaster, but still a missed opportunity. Video game are terrible anyway.

I've been putting off writing my thoughts on Ready Player One here, a quote-unquote video game website, because I didn't think people would be interested in reading them. But I guess I have to impose myself...

I am not one of those people that think Spielberg has "given up" like Alex says; Lincoln and Bridge of Spies are straight-up great films, and I envy people that can completely enjoy War of the Worlds because it is the definite post-9/11 film - the first half in incredible. I am also not super serious about video games themselves, but more on that later.

Ready Player One is not terrible, far from it, but you can clearly see a better film in it. There are interesting threads that could have been explored a little more: the endless bungalows stacked on top of each-other, the sea of closed VR cubicle, the collective imagination entirely based on copyrighted material, or even the creepy animation of Spielberg/Zemeckis. These are pretty dystopian, upsetting things that could have made for a very critical work. But Spielberg is not a cynical, deconstructing filmmaker, he is an idealist. He couldn't destroy such a world, especially one that is so inspired on his own cinema. I guess having Ernest Cline work so close on the project hasn't helped. If it had been made by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall), Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil: Retribution) or Tony Scott (Dejà Vu), it would have been this very in-depth, scatting view of the real world becoming more and more virtual, but instead we have this juvenile, naive view of the industry, and the duel between the passionate fans and the corrupt corporation - kinda similar to Speed Racer, another movie I don't like.

At least it's honest; Hollywood blockbusters have become such bloated orgies of CGI with endless intellectual properties mashed-up, and Ready Player One doesn't pretend to be anything else. This is the blockbuster of today, raw and uncensored, whether you want it or not. It is not some shitty Marvel movie pretending to make some grand political statement about immigrants or black people. Spielberg still knows how to direct an action in a way that you understand what's going on, and there's a scene near the end where he clearly says that cinema is still better than video games - and he is 100% right.

And finally, I just LOVE that the legitimacy argument has gone from "No man! Video games are important 'cause they're teaching me skills that will totally be useful to me in the future!" to "No man! Video games are important 'cause they're a real art form that should totally be taken seriously!" Fuck off! And fuck this industry!