If all the players are nerds, I find the number of generic cars to be unbelievable. They'd all be some pop culture thing or another. And duplicates of some too.
If you read the book you'll know why most of them look the same.
Ready Player One
- Thread starter Starscream2112
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If you read the book you'll know why most of them look the same.
The book is utter trash. It's basically Family Guy: Nonstop references to '80s pop culture touchstones for the sake of references. "Hey, remember this? If you remember this, it means you're cool!" That's basically the extent of the prose: Page after page of nauseatingly non-self-aware praising of gamers and people who memorize nerd stuff as being superior to those who don't, and how people into video games and '80s movies are the intellectual and martial saviors of humanity. Like, you get some Japanese guys saying, "You are so honorable for giving us Ultraman, senpai! We will fight with you till the death," and then like three lines from a Rush song, and then maybe a poorly written description of what it looks like when someone plays Joust.
The main character starts out as a fat loser, but because he's really good at the '80s treasure hunt video game, at the end he's rich and attractive and owns the world of virtual reality. Pure garbage.
Ernest Cline (the author of the book and co-writer of the movie) also wrote that godawful Fanboys movie from like a decade ago, if that gives you any idea of how unbelievably shitty he is.
I saw the trailer and it gave off a bit of a Tron Vibe. With this and Stranger Things Season 2, it feels like we might be going back to 80s nostalgia in the new year (At least from now until Next Year's comic con).
The Thor Ragnarok trailers and marketing are tapping into that as well. I believe the new movie It is also set then.
So I loved that trailer so much that I went out and found the book. I finished reading it yesterday and it was *highly* enjoyable, even though I could mostly care less about the 80s. I love the characters and the whole world of Oasis.
I am extremely curious now, though, how different the movie is going to be from the book.
The cast list is already showing some shake-up: there's no listing for the character Shoto (who is pretty important) but it does list a reasonably well known actress as a brand new character (possibly replacing Shoto in the 'High Five'?). The car chase sequence is also new and it's hard to see how it could fit into the story of the egg hunt. Perhaps that's an arena competition that's not really part of the story - but a good way to introduce how badass the main characters are and how much IOI cheats. And I do agree that Simon Pegg is basically the opposite of what I pictured Ogden Morrow to be. Hopefully he can overcome that.
I also really hope they did manage to get good licensing deals out of Japan, because the final battle sounded absolutely amazing and I want to see that on film. That, for me, is pretty much the most important ip in the story. Wargames could be easily replaced by a dozen other 80s movies. Blade Runner I guess is more important to the story and the audience in general, but I never cared for BR much personally.
I am extremely curious now, though, how different the movie is going to be from the book.
The cast list is already showing some shake-up: there's no listing for the character Shoto (who is pretty important) but it does list a reasonably well known actress as a brand new character (possibly replacing Shoto in the 'High Five'?). The car chase sequence is also new and it's hard to see how it could fit into the story of the egg hunt. Perhaps that's an arena competition that's not really part of the story - but a good way to introduce how badass the main characters are and how much IOI cheats. And I do agree that Simon Pegg is basically the opposite of what I pictured Ogden Morrow to be. Hopefully he can overcome that.
I also really hope they did manage to get good licensing deals out of Japan, because the final battle sounded absolutely amazing and I want to see that on film. That, for me, is pretty much the most important ip in the story. Wargames could be easily replaced by a dozen other 80s movies. Blade Runner I guess is more important to the story and the audience in general, but I never cared for BR much personally.
Trailer is really good but does the story have any heart and soul or is it just a flashy action flick about kids fighting an evil corporation?
Dude, it's Spielberg.
Yeah, I trust Spielberg. I am guessing the trailer is a bit misleading because it focuses on all the "cool" parts.
I'm still disappointed that Wade isn't overweight with acne, but I guess that's Hollywood for you.
Jonah Hill aged out of these parts.
This looks like the equivalent of a Funko POP figurine, all the actual texture and detail of popular culture sanded away in favor of bland interchangeable totems whose entire appeal is that you Get The Reference.
"TEE HEE! I RECOGNIZE THAT! THIS IS GOOD BECAUSE I RECOGNIZE IT!"
Right, because he's the only person who fits that description who can act...
Wish the movie itself was more outright 80s. They didn't even use the same title graphics in the movie that they did for the trailer. They totally wimped out.
Worked for Wreck it Ralph and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Those told stories (and the Wreck-It Ralph thing was, like, one scene). Roger Rabbit, for example, is a noir that traveled in time to 1988 and picked up comedy elements and used its animation trappings as window dressings for its story.
Ready Player One, on the other hand is just, "hey, you're cool if you understand this":
(And, yes, in the height of Mary Sue-ism, Cline is literally describing his own real-life car in that passage.)
Maybe that's the whole point. I mean, today's society is nothing if not obsessed with make-believe. Trek fans are especially obsessive, like 50+ years of wondering why the bridge module is rotated at a weird angle. Until you know how Spielberg is going to spin it you should hold off on trying to mount a one-man crusade to malign it.
It wouldn't be the first time Spielberg has made gold from a turd ... but this would be the biggest fucking turd he's ever made gold from.
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