Was not a fan of Ready Player One, actually down right hated it, I just found the book to be a perfect example of the Mary Sue trope and found the nostalgic references to be annoying and out right cringe inducing. The movie looks like its doing the same so fans of the novel might like it.

I'll be disappointed that Spielberg's return to a big spectacle film is wasted on such an awful novel. Spielberg was my favorite director as a kid but I haven't enjoyed one of this movies since 2002's Catch Me If You Can.

I am excited to see Red Letter Media and hopefully We Hate Movies tackle this movie.

Put me in the camp that thinks RPO is a pretty terrible book. That being said, I'm sure some of the nostalgic references work a lot better in a visual format, and with the pedigree involved I'm sure it will at least be a decent popcorn movie. Having Ernest Cline on-board as a writer does not fill me with hope though. That guy writes some awful dialog.

I have not read the book but personally I'm not going to hype up a modern Speilberg movie. I haven't liked any of his movies in years and years.

There have been a couple pretty good at least videogame movies and it'll keep getting better. Most big budget movies in general suck so not really surprising to me. I think great fits for movies also just don't get picked up to make it seems. I especially think some stuff could do super well as a 3D family movie given they are so bankrupt on idea they are making a god damn Emoji movie.

If we are going off of references to call this a video game movie, it is also a "music movie", a "TV movie", and a "movie movie". Heck, about 75% of the book was references.

Which is to say that I really didn't like the book. I suspect the movie will be better if only because I cannot imagine that Spielberg is going to spend half the run time of the movie beating the audience over the head with 80s references. But will it be a good movie? I've got my doubts.

RPO is trash.

If we except your premises that this is a video game movie because of "constant references to real video games as well as the heavy emphasis of video games in the book almost makes it a video game movie" then...No. By that definition Tron, War Games, The Last Starfighter, The Wizard, and Clock & Dagger were all great "video game" movies that came out decades before Ready Player One. I mean, even more recent popular films like The Matrix or Avatar could be considered heavily video game inspired films and there are probably dozen or more examples. So even if Ready Player One is great, it wouldn't even be close to being the first great movie in a Video Game Inspired genre of films.

I noticed Spielberg took some liberties in the trailer, so maybe he can make the protagonist less of a whiny, horny nerd who knows the ins-and-outs of everything pop culture from the 70s-90s so there's no stakes throughout the entire film.

Knowing nothing about Ready Player One except hearing the name every now and again, I thought the trailer was ridiculously dumb and I can't believe people are excited for this or that Spielberg would direct something this low-brow (although he did make Indy 4 after all...) Aside from their movie-like use of VR (seriously, if you have to run to your virtual car in real life, what prevents you from hitting a wall? Why do you even have to run there anyway?), it's just a bunch of pop culture references? By that account, I thing Wreck-it-Ralph is way more of a video game movie and also happens to be a good movie, as is the Lego movie.

In short, no, this movie looks awful in my eyes.

So they finally made Nostalgia: The Movie. I'm surprised it took them this long.

Ah yes my favourite classic 80s pop-culture icon: The Iron Giant.

Edit: I don't mean to dogpile this film. It could be very good but I just saw it described as "Lootcrate: The Movie" and that is bang on what this trailer suggests.

People forget that Jaws and Jurassic Park were decent books with amazing ideas. Ready Player One is a mediocre to decent book with great ideas. Willy Wonka in a video game world.

If anyone can do it...

I can't hate on putting 90's stuff in it. Everyone in their twenties has nostalgia for the decade they were born in just like thirty-somethings have for 80's last decade.

The trailer looks like ridiculous dumb fun but I couldn't stomach the book. Hopefully Spielberg can turn a good idea into a cool movie.

Don't have the burning hatred for the book that a whole lot of people online apparently seem to share, but I couldn't really name you a single thing that happened in it.

No opinion on the movie, really. Trailer didn't do anything.

Everything I've heard about the book sounded silly. Not the reference stuff, the actual scavenger/riddle hunt or whatever.

Trailer looked pretty great though! The references everywhere are neat in a battle royale nonsense kind of way. Best way I can think to look at it is like it's just like Quake 3 player mods with Freddy Kreuger running around fighting Deadpool while Kaneda's bike drives though with a railgun. Beautiful video game multiplayer madness.

But Scott Pilgrim was already a good non-videogame videogame movie.

People, like, really despise this book. I feel I should read it myself to form an opinion, but I've got quite the backlog.

It was assigned reading for one of my introductory courses in college, and as soon as I realized I didn't have to really read the whole thing (about halfway through, I think), I dropped it like a ton of bricks.

It was boring, at least for me. It seemed like an excuse for the author to just show off how much retro stuff he knew about more than anything else. Won't watch the movie, but maybe Spielberg can do something with it.

I really wanted to like it, but it's just not a good book. Honestly surprised by the amount of praise it received. It's the worst parts of Big Bang Theory and Family Guy with zero charm or cleverness of Robot Chicken. It's like the author wanted to give you a handjob using geek culture from the 70s and 80s. It's poorly written, highly predictable dreck. The only good thing I can say about it is that Wil Wheaton narrated the audio book.

I've heard some people bemoaning that Spielberg is straying from the source material. I say that's probably for the best. Maybe he can make something decent Cline's editor was unable to do. Even then I expect it to be visually appealing, but bereft of a good story, like Avatar.

The trailer was just a CG showcase. I hope the movie actually contains some good story and characters or else this looks just like Transformers meet Pixels or something..

A videogame movie is a movie based on an actual videogame. This is as much of a videogame movie as Scott Pilgrim, except Scott Pilgrim was a great Edgar Wright movie that knew how to casually do the references well and not just poorly pander to the 80s nostalgia and constantly hit you in the head with "hey look at this reference! I'm going to point it out to you in case you didn't notice! The 80s and 90s were so much better, amirite?".

As for the RPO movie, I'm a fan of old Spielberg movies, but this trailer did nothing for me and I disliked most of it. I know this one has to be CGI-heavy, but I'm not enjoying the art-style and cinematography they're going for. Add that to my disdain of nostalgia-pandering and there's a good recipe for this to be a movie I won't like at all.

Honestly one of the worst books I've ever read. It's everything I hate about the whole fucking "geek culture" smashed into an unfunny and poorly written mess devoid of any charm.
I seriously have a seething hatred for this book and its author who looks just like I expected him to. Talk about a walking stereotype. Jesus Christ.

"Is this it?" You good sir have obviously never seen the Dead or Alive movie, it's been done. Videogame movies are good now!

As for this movie it looks about as good/bad as Sucker Punch. (not the videogame company, the Zack Snyder special effects showcase)

I've seen a lot of hate for this book in the past few days. The most frequent complaint I've seen is "it's not written well" That's probably true, but you know what else wasn't written well, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones (seriously GRRM needed a better editor) but they were fine books. I enjoyed them all. RPO is a pop culture vomit and *gasp* I enjoyed it for what it was. I wasn't looking for the next Hemmingway book.

As someone who tried to write a book once, I have respect for anyone who actually completed it because it's VERY hard.

I loved the book when I first read it, like 6 years ago, but the more distance I get from it and the more I hate it. The more I actually think what the book is *about* and what part of gamerculture it represents, the more I hate it. It's a book that embraces re-hashing of ideas over creativity, that thinks bodyshaming is totally valid, re-enforces outdated cheap gender-roles and flat-out states enjoying games and pop culture is an inherently useless past-time (unless it allows you to save the girl and the world, which it never actually will) which I think it a garbage opinion about the medium I love both as a past-time and as a job.

Gonna skip the movie.

@atastyslurpee: I suppose your mileage may vary depending on your opinion of Harry Potter or A Song of Ice and Fire when it comes to the quality of their writing, but both look like something by Nabokov when compared to RPO.

It is weird to see how harshly public opinion changed on this book. Almost everyone was raving about this book and now it's the new cool thing to bash. That happens a lot, I guess, but RPO seems like such a silly thing to be aggrivated by. I'm not saying people's criticisms are wrong, but the fall from grace was pretty swift.

Wow. I thought the book was good but not great, and I thought I was in the minority for not loving it.

Apparently I'm in the minority for not hating it.

Listened to the Wil Wheaton narrated audiobook and thought it was alright, but when I went back to read it again couldn't get past the first page as the whole thing suddenly came back in my head and I realized I did not have any good opinion of the book.

It's nothing but the most saccarine of nostalgia, strung together with a barely there plot, and the most cardboard cutouts of characters. A few memorable moments, but I can't say I am interested in seeing this.

I saw critics and games media types (for what that is worth, 0 for your boy) praise the book but personally I have seen the book hated by many in the public since I heard of it. Not that unusual of a response. It does seem like some people really hate it but I think if something is so nostalgia and reference based it can really annoy people.

Ugh, it’s probably going to be bad. The book is just another example of the lack of creativity in modern society and feeling a need to latch on to a time where creativity still existed. sadly, creativity is for the 1% of media consumers, everyone just wants to revisit something or rehash something.

He's supposed to be fat. He lies around playing online games eating calorie loaded crap all day. Boo hiss!

Ready Player One was the definition of popcorn entertainment. It follows the hero's journey to a T. The nostalgia was gratuitous, but I didn't find it offensive like some. Him just casually sitting down and playing a perfect game of Pacman was pretty fucking stupid though. It ought to make an OK movie.

@bmccann42: oh god, listening to Wil Wheaton read this book would be my hell.

@danishingact: About two years ago everyone I know who read it loved it. Then his new book came out and was an absolute disaster and people started to turn on him and the RPO book.

I always hated the idea of RPO. It sounds like Family Guy - The Book. Just references upon references of material you had nothing to do with seems like a shield to hide the lack of creativity the creator might really have. Compared to something like The Dark Tower - which is a Stephen King series of references to everything Stephen King there's a huge difference in appeal to me.

The best video game movie is clearly Edge of Tomorrow.

I've stopped reading a lot of books in my life, but RPO is the only book I can think of that I stopped reading out of pure disgust rather than boredom; I got about 100 pages in and there was a conversation which boiled down to the main character and his friend geeking out about the Ewok Adventures movies without an ounce of apparent irony on the author's part. I can certainly see why some people might dig that sort of stuff, but I don't consume media just to be repeatedly hit in the face with a hammer labeled "NOSTALGIA".

But what I think bothers me the most about RPO is that it's getting a huge blockbuster Spielberg film and the resulting modern mainstream canonization (barring a massive flop, of course) before either Snow Crash or Neuromancer. Not that I necessarily want film adaptations of Snow Crash and Neuromancer but it's the principle of the thing that counts.

To be fair, we are very much the vocal minority here. RPO is an insanely beloved and popular book. It's currently at 4.6/5 stars on Amazon with 12,000+ reviews (and is as of this post the 9th best selling book on the site), and is at 4.31/5 stars on GoodReads with 400,000+ ratings. It has more ratings on GoodReads than Snow Crash, Neuromancer, and the entire Otherland series combined.

I love both Crank movies for different reasons and they are the perfect example of "not technically a video game but pretty much a video game movie" movie. The first Crank more straight forward action film might as well be a GTA movie. While the batshit insane balls to the walls sequel feels like a Saints Row movie.

Its a book perfectly crafted to capitalise on the cultural zeitgeist of the time. That said I dont know how people who's taste I usually aligned with loved this terrible book. Its poorly written, the amazing "puzzle" is a terrible puzzle in the end. The main character is a terrible person who is an example of every disgusting trope of a "gamer", and thats not even mentioning the stalking, trans and homophobia.

I suspect the movie will have only the scantest similarities to the book. That rad car chase isn't in the trailer isn't in the book, even though narratively should have been in there, in fact it's one of the big gripes I have with that book when i'm pointing out examples of the bad writing.

@corwag: They made Nostalgia: The Movie a couple of years ago and called it Pixels. This is actually Nostalgia: The Book: The Movie.

I never read RPO, but I grabbed Armada off the shelf at B&N and started flipping through it when it came out and it was just BAD. From what I've seen, a lot of the public opinion turned against the author when his second book was basically just like his first book in terms of references and nerdy nostalgia. "Nerdstalgia," if you will.

I ended up not buying Armada that day and I feel like I made the right choice.

WarCraft was a good video game movie! And for other "movies that are like video game movies not based on any actual game," Hardcore Henry and Edge of Tomorrow certainly come to mind.

I thought that Jeff perfectly put why RPO is getting some retroactive hate. Doing it twice just makes it seem worse the first time. Admittedly though, I found it to be a pretty ridiculous groaner when I listened to it the first time too. Wil Wheaton being the reader did not help. I'm sure reading things like Kevin Smith being one of the all time great directors, or the word newb, are bad enough...hearing someone else read them just ratchets up the lameness by like, a billion.

If just referencing video games and being about games is the qualifier then Wreck-It Ralph was the first good video game movie.

Of course. OF COURSE.

@darkeyehails: the difference is that all RPO has is nostalgia, Wreck It Ralph did have some nostalgia but it wasn’t as overt., it also had a good and fun story and original characters. I’m also really not liking the direction of Stranger Thigs season 2. They are going hard on some really overt Nostalgia, probably because they have the budget now. It’s annoying.

Mortal Kombat is a good movie.

As somebody who hasn't read the book, the only thing I see about the love people have for RPO are the references. The characters and story don't get a lot of love even from fans.

If you took out all of the 80s pop culture nostalgia references "necessary" for the plot and replaced it with historical, art, or even some other decade's references, how does it hold up?

@burncoat: I think you just wrote Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

I quite enjoyed Ready Player One when I read it (not loved, but enjoyed), and I'm looking forward to the film - am I broken?

Mortal Kombat IS the only good video game movie period. Resident Evil comes in at a very very distant second.

As I child of the 90s, RPO being a book filled with 70s and 80s nosalgia did nothing for me. Just came off as lame and a bit cringe inducing.

There was that one scene in the book where a bunch of people are in a dance hall in the future, dancing to 80s music doing 80s dances, that made me just roll my eyes.

Maybe the movie will be fine, but with the source material that lame, I have very low expectations.