@amandarichards and I once again took advantage of recent sunny weather to go out and enjoy life. It just so happened while we were out that besides the sunny weather, many other things came together nicely. For example, we came upon a Ben n' Jerry's that was handing out free ice cream cones.
We then discovered that a McMenamins bar/theater (where you can drink and order food for delivery to your seat) was showing Ready Player One...starting like five minutes from when we inquired about it and bought tickets. Nice when shit just works out like that, isn't it?
@amandarichards liked it even more than I did, I think because she went in with zero expectations, knowing nothing about it in advance. I was hopeful but also biased towards liking it because of the heavy focus on VR. If 'The Lawnmower Man' was the film that conveyed VR to the public in the 1990s, 'Ready Player One' will represent VR to today's public.
It ticks all the same boxes Spielberg movies often do. But it's greater than the sum of its parts well, exceeding the confines of that formula. It made me legitimately laugh in several places. Only the romance fell flat because of how quick and forced it was.
The love interest felt certain he would be disappointed by how she looked in real life. It turns out she's supermodel hot, but has a mild discoloration on her face, a birth mark she is inexplicably insecure about. It was a missed opportunity in my book for the protag to instead fall for his best friend, a manly cybernetic brute who it turns out is a woman.
She was not conventionally attractive though. Gotta have the hero fall for the conventionally attractive chick I guess. What a boringly safe decision. Oh well. The plot was otherwise entertaining and interesting, if a little bit silly in some parts.
It gets away with some of that because much of the film takes place in The Oasis, a VR world similar to today's VR Chat but with better graphics, animation and so on. The protagonist lives with his aunt and her abusive boyfriend in one trailer of hundreds stacked vertically in towers.
His knack for uncovering the hidden secrets, or "easter eggs" of the Oasis soon nets him the cash reserves he needs to buy better VR gear, competing more effectively to find the remaining secrets before other players do.
Also competing with him are thousands of paid egg hunters, or "gunters" in the employ of IOI corporation. They seek to take over the Oasis and make it into an advertising platform with tiered memberships, similar to what's going to happen to the internet now that Net Neutrality has been overturned.
The pop culture references are thick in this film. Not a second goes by in the Oasis where you don't spot characters from familiar movies and games. It's impressive they got the rights to all of them, but I imagine the owners of all those IPs were also eager for the free product placement, so to speak.
The challenges faced by the protagonist and his friends were imaginative, such as the hotel from The Shining. The friends kind of came out of nowhere after he said for the first half of the film that he works alone. I get the sense that this is a byproduct of cramming the plot of the book into the time constraints of a major motion picture.
Perhaps a director's cut will alleviate some of these small problems with pacing, and flesh out the story more. As-is, it's a visual treat, a thought provoking and rousing spectacle which will no doubt make everybody who sees it feel strongly tempted to run out and buy an Oculus or Vive.
That's the real purpose of it from my perspective, besides the political commentary on what sort of place shared VR worlds ought to be versus what Facebook is trying to turn them into. This may be a film future generations look back on from within a heavily stratified, advertisement saturated VR world, laughing at how naive it was to believe there was ever any chance of preventing that outcome.
That's what we go to the movies for though, isn't it? To peer voyeuristically into a dazzling alternate reality where, unlike our own world, the good guys usually win. I give Ready Player One an 8/10, docking points because there were aspects of the plot that could have been more daring.
Specifically who wound up being his love interest, and who didn't. But also not making the hot girl he falls for in the Oasis turn out to be some gross hairy fat guy irl, like his friend warned him about. That would have been more "narratively correct" and his long time friend becoming his lover would've pried a tear or two from my jaded eyes.
Stay Cozy!
I stopped reading a few paragraphs in because I guess you convinced me to watch it. Being a big horror nerd, I honestly considered skipping this one, because with the string of internet/ social media/ ai movies that have been coming out im just fucking over it.
But, your positive comments made me interested. So I stopped reading so as not to chance any spoilers. Thanks for changing my mind :)
It will definitely bring a huge boost of interest in VR headsets.
Is it really that good? Okay, I'll check it out then.
I really like the fact that you spend time with @amandarichards
I hope you guys have good "chemistry"
As for the movie , i don't know if it is because of your writing style (which i love) but sounds pretty interesting
I only read about half the review because I didn't want to spoil to much for myself and I generally like Spielberg so will likely go see it. It sounds entertaining enough though. Reminds me a bit of Surrogates with Bruce Willis or at least it has some similar elements.
@amandarichards and you? Em sorry to ask are you guys like?
Well the summer weather at times wants to make people take advantage and have fun seriously I really wish I had those ice cream cones as well
A movie in anticipation? Ah kumbaya
We're dating, it's true. :)
Really nice movie
Wow cool, you met her here?
No, OKCupid.
I didn’f even know it was out yet. The book is one of my favorites and I hope they made at least a good try and the movie since it is hard to get all the references.. (author rights) I will watch it first thing when I come back from Thailand! Also the character falls in love with the same girl in the books but in there kind of half of her face is covered by this burned mark of a sort.. but other than that she looked exactly the aame in real life as she did in the game.. just without the mark.
Movie was supposed to be released in India on 29th March. Advanced booking was available till 28th. However the theatres are not screening it. Upon enquiring at the theatres I came to know that they did not released the movie because there was a technical fault in the print. Disappointing... Was waiting desperately for this Speilberg movie...
I'd watch it in the movie if you keep me a company.
But, we live far far away from each other. Sad :(
Owk I think this is an awesome review of this movie which has kept me anticipating to see it myself. I am quite a movie freak but how come I am hearing about a movie this interesting for the first time. I think I need to up my game.
Sounds really interesting... Very mouth watering narration you have got here.
The movie is a "must watch"
You two make such a lovely out going couple.... Wonderful times to you two in future..
This movie does a great job of capturing the feelings and emotions as well as the aspirations of any VR gamer. The nostalgia also speaks to my age group as we enter the VR era. The only people who would not like this movie are non-gamers or self-absorbed trolls just being rude for the sake of it...
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i think 8/10 is fair enough to watch
will give it a shot