Ready Player One...

Regarding 3D: I watched it at a 4DX theater (3D effects, plus motion chair, wind, strobes, fog, and odor), and although the gimmicks were cool, I'd much rather watch it on a bigger screen in 2D with Atmos. There weren't many 3D scenes at all that wowed me.
 
aceattorney said:
Regarding 3D: I watched it at a 4DX theater (3D effects, plus motion chair, wind, strobes, fog, and odor), and although the gimmicks were cool, I'd much rather watch it on a bigger screen in 2D with Atmos. There weren't many 3D scenes at all that wowed me.
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That's really cool, though. I wish that I could try 4DX with the right movie. Yeah, I also wish my crappy little theater even had Atmos, at least. It's the price you pay to live in a somewhat remote, Colorado ski resort town. That's why I put together a home theater in the first place. I do have Atmos at home, but not like you'd get in a well-equipped theater. As soon as I get a bigger place, though...
 
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Saw the movie again last night. I was so excited again when all of the trailers stopped and it was about to start again for me. I was just as excited as the first time. It's just grown on me, even with all of the changes from the book, some of which I actually like more.

This movie is a new favorite of mine. I just love it! I will watch it regularly on Blu-ray, as well. There is simply nothing like it, and nothing else has ever dared to include a shared videogame universe like this and incorporate it into the story. This is very much classic Spielberg, whether people can actually see that or not. I think it's very clear, personally.
 
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Saw the movie last night. This movie sucked major balls. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. In fact, my head dropped down 3 times from dosing off it was so boring. Who the f*** thought this would be a good movie?
 
Hedon said:
Saw the movie last night. This movie sucked major balls. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. In fact, my head dropped down 3 times from dosing off it was so boring. Who the f*** thought this would be a good movie?
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The problem could be that your face sucks major balls. :tounge: This movie is great!
 
Hedon said:
Saw the movie last night. This movie sucked major balls. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. In fact, my head dropped down 3 times from dosing off it was so boring. Who the f*** thought this would be a good movie?
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I have mixed feelings on the whole thing. TBH it is a mediocre story with Spielberg polish and based on a book wrapped in references. This should sound familiar because this is what The Dark Tower tried to do.

I guess I just find it bizarre how a first time author has a smash hit book built upon the works of so many other people. I think a person should pay their dues as an artist before doing that. It's how I'd feel if a first time movie director's first film was a remake.

Oddly enough, I am fine with some of the main liberties taken with this by Spielberg who IMO has earned that leeway, especially regarding the second Key Challenge movie reference which he changed from the book. To some extent, I also like his change to the first challenge which felt like a real 'Easter Egg'.

As for the final challenge, while it is cool and all to see all these game characters arrive, I thought the final challenge based on obscure game trivia to win was really lame. I was also perplexed that not once do we see the actual Easter Egg used after fighting so hard to get it.

I'm also concerned about the lesson of this movie suggesting to Hollywood that movies soaked in nostalgic references are easy money. So instead of doing remakes, they'll adjust to this model of movies packed full of references to multiple films and old TV shows or games.
 
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Just got back from seeing it and I thought it was an enjoyable watch and very well made. They could have cut about 20 minutes out of it though. It seemed to go a bit toward the end.
 
Videodrome said:
I have mixed feelings on the whole thing. TBH it is a mediocre story with Spielberg polish and based on a book wrapped in references. This should sound familiar because this is what The Dark Tower tried to do.

I guess I just find it bizarre how a first time author has a smash hit book built upon the works of so many other people. I think a person should pay their dues as an artist before doing that. It's how I'd feel if a first time movie director's first film was a remake.

Oddly enough, I am fine with some of the main liberties taken with this by Spielberg who IMO has earned that leeway, especially regarding the second Key Challenge movie reference which he changed from the book. To some extent, I also like his change to the first challenge which felt like a real 'Easter Egg'.

As for the final challenge, while it is cool and all to see all these game characters arrive, I thought the final challenge based on obscure game trivia to win was really lame. I was also perplexed that not once do we see the actual Easter Egg used after fighting so hard to get it.

I'm also concerned about the lesson of this movie suggesting to Hollywood that movies soaked in nostalgic references are easy money. So instead of doing remakes, they'll adjust to this model of movies packed full of references to multiple films and old TV shows or games.
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Goid criticisms. Well, Cline did write and direct Fanboys, but that doesn't really make him seasoned. I also agree that Spielberg has earned the right to use these tropes, since so much out it comes from his influence.

I'm not too worried about Hollywood going off the deep end because honestly, RP1 is not the first successful movie to name drop and play on pop culture tropes. I think Scream is a perfect example of it already being done pretty successfully in the 90s. Now, I did hear that Cline's other book Armada just got picked up by a major studio. That book is also very aware of and references some of the sci-fi stories that came before it, actually calling out some of it as basically propaganda to train us for space combat.

It also is quite a bit legal hurdle to cross-license, and that requires some pretty large studio influence.
 
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GordoSan you might interested to know I actually completely agree with you about the Ars review. I think it was overly cynical and harsh now that I’ve actually seen the movie. I still think the ads didn’t sell the movie well at all for me. That’s what gave me a bad impression of it to begin with.
 
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D-V-ANT said:
GordoSan you might interested to know I actually completely agree with you about the Ars review. I think it was overly cynical and harsh now that I’ve actually seen the movie. I still think the ads didn’t sell the movie well at all for me. That’s what gave me a bad impression of it to begin with.
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Yay! Well, thanks for the honest reply. I didn't get around to replying to your earlier post because you and sharkboy now both have the Homer avatar, and he was just talking about wanting to see it. Lol.

I'm glad your understand me now. That Ars guy was mentioning the relationship between Parzival and Art3mis being so offensive, or maybe it was just her... It's just that this was a pretty decent criticism of the book, which they actually fixed big time, for the movie. They never actually meet until the end of the book, which to some people, it made it seem like he was stalking her since the dance party and she was ok with it in the end. I thought that the actress did an amazing job with the character, but she was also written much better for the movie. Honestly, the most "real" and honest parts of the movie, were the ones with Samantha, imo.
 
Me and my family went into this movie with no expectations and came out amazed.

I laughed out loud many times and the only way I can explain it is it has the same feelings for me as maybe a movie like the goonies.

Probably the greatest single use of the F word ever.

I will probably go see it again and I garuntee I will own it when it comes out on blue ray which is something very rare these days,
 
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just got back from seeing this and loved it!! OK its not life changing and way different from the book but the CG is amazing and me and my son really enjoyed it.
Couple kids left the cinema crying lol, i was actually surprised how scary and gory a couple scenes were and they dropped the F bomb????

All in all enjoyed it a lot and wasn't disappointed. Too many negative naysayers think they are film critics. I look at movies like a longer version of a theme park ride, pay your money, sit down, get entertained, get up, leave.
 
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I think that this movie has to be, hands down, the single most polarized movie of all time. More than Avatar... More than The Last Jedi. I would actually put this movie decently above the other two, on my scale, but more people (as well as myself) liked those other two, as opposed to either loving or hating. Other than maybe Plainview here, I've not really seen many people basically say that they thought this movie was just OK or was just decent. They seem to think that it's either a steaming pile of sh!t, or they adore it. I'm in the second category.

I know when I watched it a second time, I actually started to cheer much louder than the first, and I noticed some really cool things, as well as became even more engaged, somehow. The movie is going to be one that I revisit again and again on Blu-ray, for sure. It's got some imperfections, but I don't mind.
 
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GordoSan said:
I think that this movie has to be, hands down, the single most polarized movie of all time. More than Avatar... More than The Last Jedi. I would actually put this movie decently above the other two, on my scale, but more people (as well as myself) liked those other two, as opposed to either loving or hating. Other than maybe Plainview here, I've not really seen many people basically say that they thought this movie was just OK or was just decent. They seem to think that it's either a steaming pile of sh!t, or they adore it. I'm in the second category.

I know when I watched it a second time, I actually started to cheer much louder than the first, and I noticed some really cool things, as well as became even more engaged, somehow. The movie is going to be one that I revisit again and again on Blu-ray, for sure. It's got some imperfections, but I don't mind.
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I enjoyed it but I certainly don’t adore or it. I don’t think it’s a pile of crap either. I think it’s as polarized as you believe it to be. Most of the people I’ve spoken to about seem to fall into the same area as well. Enjoyable movie but nothing special really.
 
After a thread about VR on these forums, I came to realize something. In this year of the movie's release, it's hard to see how visionary this story was in 2011, when this book was published. I came across a couple of articles from 2015.

http://fortune.com/2015/07/10/ready-player-one-vr/

What’s really astounding to me is a lot of the guys at Oculus VR and other companies who were creating VR tell me that Ready Player One is one of their primary inspirations in getting into virtual reality,” Cline says. “I’ve been to Oculus a few times to do book signings and things there and they tell me Ready Player One is like required reading for new employees. The book came out right as Palmer Luckey was doing his initial Kickstarter campaign and everybody recommended it to him and he read it and loved it and now he recommends it to everybody that comes to work at Oculus, including pioneers in the computer fields like John Carmack and Michael Abrash.”

You could even say that Ready Player One itself, most likely kick started the Kickstarter for Oculus, which of course, kick started what is said to be a nearly $2 Billion industry this year, and is expected to be a $10 Billion industry in just four years. If there's any wonder why Ernest Cline has as much clout as he does, there you go.

A cool quote from another good read: https://readwrite.com/2015/03/13/ernie-cline-oculus-virtual-reality/

It’s funny talking to Cline about virtual reality. He’s such a diehard gamer that he almost doesn’t seem to care about virtual reality technology itself. For him, it’s more an obvious progression for gaming. To him, humans have been creating online worlds for themselves since the very first video game consoles, when two friends could sit next to each other and interact on a screen. We have always been seeking to immerse ourselves in alternate realities; this is just the ultimate form.
 
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