Ready Player One
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CB2001
Master Member
Zuiun
Sr Member
The movie is not without flaws (although I did thoroughly enjoy it), but one area I feel in which it massively improves on the book is in making the references LESS important to the overall story. The book gets a bit tedious at times, both in endless explanations of references (without driving the story forward), or with almost every in-OASIS action set piece being directly tied to some pop-culture icon (D&D, Wargames, Monty Python, etc.).
The best thing the film does is to put *most* of the references in the background. If you spot 'em, good for you. If you don't, doesn't matter because they aren't vital to the narrative.
Now having said that, without the references, the story (both book and film) is a pretty generic wish-fulfillment story with characters that aren't quite paper thin, but could definitely use a bit more than what we're given. It's fun and pretty entertaining, but about as deep as a wading pool.
I only mentioned the ones I really liked. After reviewing the list linked below, Im about 50%.
https://screenrant.com/ready-player-one-easter-eggs-guide/
I’m going at this for personal enjoyment factor....
I finally got to watch this last night. I have 2 young kids and is harder to get out to the movies as frequently as I used to. Anyway...
Yes, pretty simple objective and storyline, but man I enjoyed the heck out of this movie way more than I thought I would.
Admittedly though I do have to take into consideration the wealth of nostalgia hits this film touched on, and perhaps that’s what kept me really grinning through so much of the film, but I don’t feel like those elements were critical or thrown in your face to take over the story than being there as background things.
These are the kinds of films I wish Spielberg would do more of. I love when he makes fun movies like this and it was pretty amazing how much technical tricks were involved and the big sequences filled with everything.
I wasn’t that blown away by the trailers, but for me this was a well balanced sort of classic clear-cut storyline that wasn’t boring in the least. Fun trip, great music, very creative and hit all the nostalgic feels and child-at-heart things I dig.
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I finally got to watch this last night. I have 2 young kids and is harder to get out to the movies as frequently as I used to. Anyway...
Yes, pretty simple objective and storyline, but man I enjoyed the heck out of this movie way more than I thought I would.
Admittedly though I do have to take into consideration the wealth of nostalgia hits this film touched on, and perhaps that’s what kept me really grinning through so much of the film, but I don’t feel like those elements were critical or thrown in your face to take over the story than being there as background things.
These are the kinds of films I wish Spielberg would do more of. I love when he makes fun movies like this and it was pretty amazing how much technical tricks were involved and the big sequences filled with everything.
I wasn’t that blown away by the trailers, but for me this was a well balanced sort of classic clear-cut storyline that wasn’t boring in the least. Fun trip, great music, very creative and hit all the nostalgic feels and child-at-heart things I dig.
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CB2001
Master Member
At least the Chinese character doesn't bow. In fact, he doesn't seem to give one f#*k (unless you're complimenting him) and includes snark. XD
At least the Chinese kid didn’t call himself Short Round.
sztriki
Sr Member
I just saw the movie yesterday for the first time. I was dreading it a bit as I'm just really against fan-service without substance (Rogue One for example went down the drain with me for this). I thought it was an okay movie, it didn't make me angry or felt that it insulted my intelligence, it was a very simple story with 20 mph bends in the narrative (at least it didn't pretend that it has some really shocking reveal that we've seen a thousand times) fine for a normal weekday evening.
And I can fully agree with you, had there been less number of "references" it certainly would have become more annoying and in your face, but after the first 15 minutes or so I just became immune to it and was like eh whatever really, they're mostly just background elements. There were some nerd-out moments that made me roll my eyes a bit but it was surprisingly better than expected.
Haven't read the book and really don't feel like going for it, but it was an okay popcorn movie.
Quite interesting though that they managed to keep the budget under 200 mils.
I watched it with my kids in Blu-Ray. 95% of the references and Easter Eggs went over their heads since they're only 6 and 8 years old.
They did recognize the Iron Giant, but I also had to insert that a Laputa robot would be way cooler.
Most of the IPs made me smile more than blowing me away. Gundam, Mechagodzilla and the Akira bike were unexpected surprises. The Ultraman "family" would have been nice, too, but you can't have everything.
They did recognize the Iron Giant, but I also had to insert that a Laputa robot would be way cooler.
Most of the IPs made me smile more than blowing me away. Gundam, Mechagodzilla and the Akira bike were unexpected surprises. The Ultraman "family" would have been nice, too, but you can't have everything.
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I rented this a few days ago. I enjoyed it. I thought the references where a bit much, but I bet if we could become trillionaires by finding clues from 1950's culture then we would be up to our eyeballs in Leave it to Beaver, war movies, and Captain America.
I did smile when they played the original Godzilla theme when Mecha Godzilla came out.
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I did smile when they played the original Godzilla theme when Mecha Godzilla came out.
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CB2001
Master Member
If you haven't checked out the book, I recommend it. It does a better job at explaining a lot of things. It's more focused on 1980s pop culture (due to the Egg Hunt, the 1980s is back in style, so we don't get much outside of that). However, Cline is working on the second book and he states he'll use more references outside of the 1980s.
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mattycsi
Master Member
This may well be my new favourite movie, I absolutely loved it. The references were done well, it wasn't thrown in your face, it was just there. I totally geeked out at the use of the charm of making which I'd memorised as a kid. The Shining set up was just so good, the film just impressed me at every step. Watched it a few times now, not to seek out new references but just to wallow in it.
A friend of mine was on at me forever to read the book, but I wanted to see the film first. When I bought the BluRay it came with a free copy of the book. I'm half way through it and it's fantastic. It does do a whole better job at setting up the premises, particularly in terms of how Halliday is presented differently compared to the movie.
Riceball
Master Member
Yeah, same here. However, Japanese and Koreans still tend to bow a lot, even when in the US, Chinese not so much. I've encountered and seen many a Korean living in the US how still bow (slightly) when shaking hands and so with their left hand on their right wrist as they would do in Korea.
mattycsi
Master Member
That's how we shake hands in TaeKwonDo, apparently its to show there is nothing up your sleeve with which to cause harm.
It dies become a reflex though, I have to stop myself from doing it outside of class.
Victor3
Sr Member
Me too! I cracked up when he said it the first time, while my wife didn't catch the reference. I explained that one, and it was probably the 10th time so far, when she said "OK, I bow to your geekiness tonight. You've left me way behind!"
I must admit my inner high school geek was critical of the pronunciation.
And I know that even Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren pronounced bethad differently from each other. Williamson’s “be-thud” is more technically correct but I always preferred Mirren’s “be-thood” because it sounded cooler.
I’m glad to get that off my chest.
mattycsi
Master Member
I noticed the pronunciation was off. But I give them a pass for trying. Plus they are 20+ years away from us so maybe not as familiar with it. Also the film didnt nod to that reference as much as it did with others, so maybe they werent supposed to be as familiar, as Art3mis and I-roc pronounce it quite differently from each other.
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