|
Remember the things you like? Here's a thread to talk about the movie that's about the things you like! That's right, it's Ready Player One, the new movie by acclaimed elderly director Steven Spielberg (1941, Always, The Terminal) is about everything you know and love, from Nancy Drew to Minecraft, it's a veritable smorgasbord of stuff you remember! Hoot and holler when you see the Iron Giant, chuckle into your popcorn when you recognize the set of The Shining, and piss yourself every time someone says "Mario Kart"! That's right, Mario Kart! Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSp1dM2Vj48 Did they say Mario Kart? Probably! I haven't seen the film yet and I never plan to but I'm sick and tired of reading about in GenChat, so please discuss it here so I never have to think about it ever again. Star Wars! Nintendo! That one Rush album everyone knows about! They're all here, just for you!! edit: gently caress!!!
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 14:10 |
|
|
Damm!!
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:31
|
|
|
I don't think this movie was actually about the things I like.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:34
|
|
|
I want to watch it for the stuff about online communities
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:36
|
|
|
The RPO Thread The Provisional RPO Thread The Real RPO Thread The Official RPO Thread The Continuity RPO Thread
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:42
|
|
|
BravestOfTheLamps posted:The RPO Thread If I was a mod I'd merge all the Star Wars threads
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:48
|
|
|
listen to this podcast review of the book: http://ideotvpod.libsyn.com/ready-player-one-w-mike-sacco
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:56
|
|
|
It was bad. Not like the Michael Jackson album, which is a thing you know.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:00
|
|
|
Posting in here since there are too many threads and I dunno what will last. The book is about Wikipedia knowledge of details being the key to being happy and better than everyone else and that pop culture belongs to those that know the surface details the most, the movie is saying escapism can be fun, pop culture is what you make of it, and that forging legitimate connections to other people is the most important thing in the end. It's almost a pure inverse approach. The most telling part of this, outside of every pop culture depiction in the movie being wrong or off in some way, is the Shining sequence. In the book, they are forced to recreate movies word for word, part for part, to get the key or the gate or whatever. The Shining sequence starts off that way, with the characters running off a list of keys in the movie, trying to figure out which one is correct and why it would be so. However, the character that never saw the movie and thinks there are zombies in it runs across the way to get the key, by doing everything in the movie "wrong." And the key is in a room full of zombies, and has nothing to do with the actual movie itself, but the creator's personal connections instead. A lot of "reviews" of the movie I'm reading on the Internet in comments are missing this kind of text and are just talking about fidelity to the source (book). Ie. "the book did this thing, why is it not in the movie." Which is something the movie really seems to take a stance against, especially adapting that source. Also consider the filmmaker. Spielberg NEVER adapts sources correctly and finds one thing he likes in it and makes the movie about that. The Jaws book had infidelities, mafia subplots, meandering about random shark facts, a too on the nose Ahab thing out of nowhere, etc. Jurassic Park went in entirely different directions with practically every character and had entirely different subtext. The Color Purple was more about Celie discovering her sexuality through lesbianism and experiencing love and gaining freedom through that as opposed to the movie where she does so with her own growing willpower and observation of others in similar situations to herself. Don't even get me started on Minority Report. Etc. He seemed to do the same with this book; as one of the major creators of modern pop culture, he mostly only uses the culture as avatars for the characters or scenery, and something malleable - not something with "rules" that has to be adhered to, while telling a story about a lack of connection (that I agree was not as strong as it could have been).
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:02
|
|
|
Already blew the $13 for the ticket on Saturday. Expecting the worst poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:02
|
|
|
Venuz Patrol posted:listen to this podcast review of the book: http://ideotvpod.libsyn.com/ready-player-one-w-mike-sacco No.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:03
|
|
|
Darko posted:He seemed to do the same with this book; as one of the major creators of modern pop culture, he mostly only uses the culture as avatars for the characters or scenery, and something malleable - not something with "rules" that has to be adhered to, while telling a story about a lack of connection (that I agree was not as strong as it could have been). It's not just not strong enough, it's fundamentally not a story about lack of connection. Characters delivering periodic dialog about how important real-world relationships are doesn't overcome the story being about people who really do form strong relationships by playing a video game together, or who gain control of a trillion-dollar corporation by winning the game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:08
|
|
|
Sir Kodiak posted:It's not just not strong enough, it's fundamentally not a story about lack of connection. Characters delivering periodic dialog about how important real-world relationships are doesn't overcome the story being about people who really do form strong relationships by playing a video game together, or who gain control of a trillion-dollar corporation by winning the game. I didn't say real world relationships on purpose. The movie doesn't really judge online relationships as not being "real" - in fact, the friend group are a mix of people who do and do not resemble their online selves and none of it matters because their connections were formed within the Oasis. The creator had no kind of personal relationship after losing his only friend, on or offline. The throwaway "couple days in the real world" just seemed like it was a side commentary of the people in the world getting too lost in their escapism instead of bothering with people actually around them, ie. the mother brushing her daughter off to play solo in a shooter - not downing relationships created online.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:14
|
|
|
Then the only person with a lack of connection is Halliday, a side character who is deceased, and, like, a couple of background characters with no dialog. So, again, not a story about lack of connection. All our protagonists have close friendships.
Sir Kodiak fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Mar 29, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:17
|
|
|
Yes, Halliday is Citizen Kane - the movie spells that out too. You're forgetting the *other* character who is shown with a lack of connections. The one who wants to take over The Oasis.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:24
|
|
|
The difference being that Citizen Kane is the main character of Citizen Kane, rather than a side character who is only briefly glimpsed. And the CEO, of course, has a connection to that security lady. It's not a particular pleasant one, but he's not a particular pleasant guy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:28
|
|
|
Sir Kodiak posted:It's not just not strong enough, it's fundamentally not a story about lack of connection. Characters delivering periodic dialog about how important real-world relationships are doesn't overcome the story being about people who really do form strong relationships by playing a video game together, or who gain control of a trillion-dollar corporation by winning the game. I think that's sort of missing the point. I haven't seen the movie yet, but what I'm getting isn't a "go outside" message; it's a message that we should focus on the actual positive things that come out of our escapism, like strong relationships, instead of just doing it for its own sake. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:28
|
|
|
LORD OF BOOTY posted:I think that's sort of missing the point. I haven't seen the movie yet, but what I'm getting isn't a "go outside" message; it's a message that we should focus on the actual positive things that come out of our escapism, like strong relationships, instead of just doing it for its own sake. I'd think if this was the point of the movie, the main character would have an arc of going from the latter to the former, rather than spending the entire movie dedicated to his relationships. And, c'mon, buddy, see the movie before telling me what it's about.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:30
|
|
|
LORD OF BOOTY posted:I think that's sort of missing the point. I haven't seen the movie yet, but what I'm getting isn't a "go outside" message; it's a message that we should focus on the actual positive things that come out of our escapism, like strong relationships, instead of just doing it for its own sake. The message is connecting with other people is more important than escapism. Which is fine but I wish it was way more blunt.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:32
|
|
|
Sir Kodiak posted:And, c'mon, buddy, see the movie before telling me what it's about. Fair enough, I just figure with the movie literally just being out we're still in the "interpreting what other people say about it is fair" stage.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:37
|
|
|
Sir Kodiak posted:I'd think if this was the point of the movie, the main character would have an arc of going from the latter to the former, rather than spending the entire movie dedicated to his relationships. The main character got what Halliday wanted to acheive. It doesn't necessarily need to be about the protagonist coming to a realization.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:57
|
|
|
That's fair, I don't want to nitpick the word "about." A lack of human connection was clearly something that came up during the movie. I'm more reacting to the strangeness of the main character being repeatedly lectured about a problem that he at no point possessed and the resulting ineffectiveness of those lectures.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:00
|
|
|
If this succeeds then Armada will be made into a movie and nobody will be happy
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:06
|
|
|
Uncle Wemus posted:If this succeeds then Armada will be made into a movie and nobody will be happy Its seems like the only reason this movie will succeed is that the movie basically ignores the book and only uses it as a backdrop to tell a bog standard action movie story.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:21
|
|
|
BravestOfTheLamps posted:The RPO Thread the I can't believe it's not RPO Thread how bout that, it's a reference
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:31
|
|
|
Solid 3/5 movie I would say. I watched it last night and while its not awful, its still pretty loving cringe and corny as gently caress. BUT, it is actually so much better than the book. The book was such a piece of poo poo, like probably top 3 worst books I ever read. I like Darko said about the book and how knowing wikipedia level knowledge is the key to everything. This is what I hated the most out of the book, especially if you consider how much it reflects on modern social media/online interactions these days. Its just a race to see who's better than who by knowing the most obscure things and it gets so annoying. Things the movie does better than the book: the characters, story is changed up a bit to actually have a message that isn't so drat depressing. Like Spielberg does his usual poo poo on here and its like wow look at this world! Isn't so great!? But I couldn't help but feel sad still for a lot of the people and living conditions they had, like the stacks for example. Or people just living in the streets or something? This world is so depressing even after the bad guys lose and have to shut down.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:35
|
|
|
It's a lesser Spielberg movie, but it's definitely an entertaining picture that uses the referential stuff as a texture for the most part; stuff like Halliday using The Shining as a wrapper for his feelings of inadequacies on connecting with the woman he loved, who ended up marrying his best friend because Halliday's deep-set social anxiety kept him from actually taking a chance on rejection, which in turn eventually led to Halliday ousting his best friend from the company and his life worked pretty well given The Overlook is all about isolation. Also Sho saying he had to watch it through his fingers is much funnier once you realize he's 11. Really, the most irritating bits were them dipping into explaining a reference, and TJ Miller throwing a bunch of middling improv into his scenes, although when Sorrento is about to activate the big bomb, him being like "dude I have like 10 years worth of stuff in my inventory, I don't wanna lose my poo poo" was a good little gag. The Gundam bit worked, and I loved "it's loving Chucky!" quickly followed by like a dozen people get booted out of OASIS while everyone else is screaming. Them hacking Sorrento because of a post-it note, since he's the sort of middle management rear end in a top hat that would keep his password on one that he's stuck to his VR pod throne, followed by Mendelsohn's poking his head up over the throne after figuring out what was going on, that was all good. It's a movie that has a lot of good performances - Rylance's semi-autistic mannerisms as Halliday really sell a lot, especially once Wade is face to face with him and we see both the child who is drilling himself deep into video games to replace human connections and the old, lonely man he becomes sharing the screen together. One senses Spielberg saw Halliday as a character not unlike himself - someone who made an obscene amount of money out of escapist fantasy that he made to fill a hole in human connections that he had trouble making throughout his life. I guess this sort of stuff sits more in the mind the more you know of Spielberg as the kid who was on the outs socially in school and who has been basically "the boy in the bubble" since Kennedy + Marshall always did the dirty work of firings and whatnot at Amblin once they saddled up as his producers/co-heads of the company in the 80s. The Iron Giant bit is weird, and I imagine a reason why they pivoted to that particular character is because, of all the giant robots in cinema and television history, he is one of the rare ones with a capability to emote. That he's also a Warner property so there's no cost to using him probably helped. Also E.T. being a game on the Atari board at IOI's nerd hivemind during the final trial was a nice little joke. Pity the poor bastard who got that game, although he only had to play it for a minute. There were moments I wish they were more referential, too - like the Holy Hand Grenade; Wade tossing it, nothing happening, and then being reminded "you have to count to three" rather than it being a regular, powerful grenade would have been a nice bit of business. There are some parts that lag, too - exposition gets laid thick at times in a threadbare way you don't expect from a Spielberg movie. He's usually much more pointed and willing to breadcrumb the audience than what's presented here. I was glad that Wade saying "you're not an avatar" to the virtual Halliday, Halliday affirming this, then asking if Halliday was really dead, then asking what this virtual Halliday was - and Rylance just saying goodbye, rather than explaining that Halliday was his creation, a culmination of his life, and his creation was him, that you can't truly unwind the artist from his art was how it was. And yet, I can't think of any real major bits you could slice from the movie. It's a well-paced movie, especially for two hours plus (and especially compared to some of the blockbusters that tap the same runtime). It was more refinement that was needed than anything. Really, despite how unwieldy the thing could get here and there, and despite it never hitting dizzying heights (I'd argue they rush a bit fast into the trials and the hunt - there's a real thin first act, a lack of real acclimation to the actual future outside of the OASIS that hurts the film quite a bit), I get the feeling this will still probably be towards the top of the spectacle filled action-adventure films of the year. One last bit: Spielberg is still really good at giving the fringe bits of a plausible future. Pizza Hut delivering pizza by drone (as well as other monolithic corporations using drones to do their dirty work like constant surveillance and planting bombs) is a real "yeah, I can see this happening" image. And Sorrento being the unholy demon child of tech and video game executive avarice - pushing for the idea of tiered access in using the OASIS and having calculated the exact amount of ads IOI could plaster in the eyeline of a user before said user suffers a seizure is the sort of disturbing brainstorms you know has bounced around numerous San Francisco offices.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 21:53
|
|
|
Darko posted:Posting in here since there are too many threads and I dunno what will last. I was already going to see it but now I can see it without a sense of dread. Thank you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 22:13
|
|
|
i don't really relate to this movie you know, because I have different things in my jeep than he had in his jeep.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 22:25
|
|
|
DC Murderverse posted:i don't really relate to this movie you know, because I have different things in my jeep than he had in his jeep. Now this is a good movie.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 22:27
|
|
|
BexGu posted:Its seems like the only reason this movie will succeed is that the movie basically ignores the book and only uses it as a backdrop to tell a bog standard action movie story. It follows the book way closer than I expected and the changes are mostly structural (i.e. using The Shining instead of the book's weird "memorize and reenact the entirety of WarGames" challenge). The message is the same and the glib, tacked on "yeah, but you should sometimes go outside but let's be real John Hughes movies are the most important thing in the world" moral.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 23:23
|
|
|
The Cameo posted:There are some parts that lag, too - exposition gets laid thick at times in a threadbare way you don't expect from a Spielberg movie. It really was Spielberg being too faithful to Shonen Anime, where exposition is frequently employed. That's really the vibe I got from watching the film, vs the book I've never read but heard complaints about.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 23:44
|
|
|
TrixRabbi posted:The message is the same and the glib, tacked on "yeah, but you should sometimes go outside but let's be real John Hughes movies are the most important thing in the world" moral. If it was John Huston, I'd totally buy that moral.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 01:08
|
|
|
Samuel Clemens posted:If it was Jimmy Houston, I'd totally buy that moral. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 01:25
|
|
|
How well did Spielberg adapt this part?:
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 02:03
|
|
|
He had Optimus Prime narrate it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 02:08
|
|
|
CelticPredator posted:He had Optimus Prime narrate it. "Hot Nerd Chicks are the right of all sentient boners"
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 02:32
|
|
|
Corrosion posted:It really was Spielberg being too faithful to Shonen Anime, Yeah it was definitely because steven spielberg watches anime
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 03:45
|
|
|
I’m legit sure he does.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 04:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 14:10 |
|
|
dude is a huge, huge gamer and is pretty much responsible for the Medal of Honor series existing, and also loves Bioshock and was one of the main people trying to help Verbinski get his Bioshock movie made also, y'know, there's a RX-78 Gundam in this movie he probably at least kinda likes anime
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 05:34
|
|