Ready Player One, in theaters March 30, 2018

[ZorClone]

Just got back from seeing this movie, and what a blast it was!  Quite the visual treat of catching all the pop culture references on the big screen like that.  Plus, seeing it with a group of friends that all met each other online originally and watching onscreen characters go through all the funny "omg I know you in real life now!" stuff we did was a hoot.

From a critical standpoint, sure, it's not an oscar winning film and the story is silly on its face.  But damn if it wasn't a fun movie to watch.

[no3Ljm]

Saw it today with my son. Yeah, it was a fun movie. Not a memorable one for me but fun. Lots of eye candy. That's it. My son however enjoyed it. And that's enough for me.

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by no3Ljm

[ArchieNov]

How long before we can talk about spoilers? While I enjoyed the movie, there are several questionable and dumb things in the movie I’d like to discuss.

[no3Ljm]

5 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

How long before we can talk about spoilers? While I enjoyed the movie, there are several questionable and dumb things in the movie I’d like to discuss.

Use the spoiler tags I guess?

Edited April 1, 2018 by no3Ljm

[kajnrig]

Rule I've seen mentioned is two-week spoiler period from time of release, then it's fair game.

[sh9000]

 

[Keith]

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, definitely one I want to own.

[spacemanoeuvres]

 

[Kanedas Bike]

Spoiler

 

Kanedas Bike!

Serenity!

M41A Pulse Rifle!

UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship!

Spartan II's!

RX-78-2!

 

Loved all of the movie and video game references, felt like the movie was made (and I have to assume that the book was written) for folks like us that tend to live and breath our forms of fictional entertainment, whether that be video games, movies, books, anime, whatever.

-b.

[M'Kyuun]

Saw it today with the wife. Definitely a love letter to the 80's, but there's so much more than that as far as pop culture references go. As for the film itself, it's a nice bit of sci-fi fun, nothing really new or original, but what it did do was entertaining and fun to watch. It's one of those movies that requires a few viewings to catch all the references Spielberg and the writers tucked in there. Seeing Kaneda's bike in action, not to mention Iron Giant and the Gundam, were highlights that make you want to see more.  Great nerd-fare, this film. I was all smiles the whole way through.

Loved Mark Rylance's performance in this movie, and Simon Pegg is always enjoyable.  Really though, I felt the whole cast did a really good job. Kudos to all the artists behind the scenes, as at least half the film is rendered, and it was pretty neat to see so many disparate characters, vehicles, and other pop culture things brought to life in a single bit of media.

[peter]

Just watched it, pretty good movie, would probably watch it again.

Would have been cooler if it was a VF-1S Strike Valkyrie instead of Gundam, but can't win them all I suppose.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

You know you're with a good crowd when people go crazy when the Gundam is summoned.  This was a totally fun movie, I'm glad I caught it on the big screen.

[Mechinyun]

I really liked it. Kids LOVED it.  Definition of a good popcorn movie. 

[Graham]

I thought it was an OK movie, but not great.  

The  many 80s references were cool and all, but I can see this movie appealing more to younger  people in their 20s and 30s who grew up on massive multi-player online games.

For me the highlight of the movie was NOT the RX-78 Gundam, as that's a mecha I've never liked but rather when..........

Artemis used the Pulse Rifle from Aliens

Saw it once, enjoyed it, but not enough that I'd go to see it a second time.

[renegadeleader1]

8 minutes ago, Graham said:

I thought it was an OK movie, but not great.  

The  many 80s references were cool and all, but I can see this movie appealing more to younger  people in their 20s and 30s who grew up on massive multi-player online games.

For me the highlight of the movie was NOT the RX-78 Gundam, as that's a mecha I've never liked but rather when..........

  Reveal hidden contents

Artemis used the Pulse Rifle from Aliens

 

Saw it once, enjoyed it, but not enough that I'd go to see it a second time.

Not liking the RX-78? 

"You always were an a****** Graham."

[spacemanoeuvres]

3 hours ago, renegadeleader1 said:

Not liking the RX-78? 

"You always were an a****** Graham."

Lol, you had your chance Gorman!

[kajnrig]

Why like the RX-78 when you have the VF-1, though?

[ArchieNov]

Does anyone else besides me think Pacific Rim 2 was better than Ready Player One? I can’t honestly understand why people call PR2 a dumb movie, but don’t say the same thing about RPO.

Also, people criticize the action in PR2 saying it’s not as memorable as those in the first film as there’s too much going on. While I can understand that point of view, isn’t this a lot worse in RPO? There’s always so much going on during the battle scenes that it’s almost impossible to make out everything that’s going on in a single viewing. Sure Kaneda’s bike was there, but I don’t remember it doing anything as cool as it did in Akira. Gundam’s appearance was nice, but again, it didn’t do anything that would make me go wow.

Anyway, not saying RPO was a bad movie. It was enjoyable and lived up to my expectations of it (though admittedly I didn’t really have any hype for it). I just think PR2 was better and most of the faults it had were worse in RPO.

Edited April 10, 2018 by ArchieNov

[kajnrig]

^ I'll let you know when I see RPO this afternoon. For what it's worth, my impression of Pacific Rim 2 is improving by the day.

[M'Kyuun]

I thought Pacific Rim 2 and Ready Player One were both enjoyable movies; they do different things and tell different stories, but for a couple hours of over-the-top sci-fi concepts and action, they both offer a nice bit of escapism fit for nachos and a large blue-raspberry Icee.

It seems like people like to analyze, or way over-analyze, their media of choice these days; I just take it at face value and try to enjoy what it offers. I'm generally a pretty content guy- I don't stress over camera flare, or too-orange/bluish color hues (which I didn't notice). Perhaps being a dullard helps me get more enjoyment out of my entertainment choices. In my case, ignorance truly is bliss. I feel sorry for all you smart people. 

[ArchieNov]

Personally I do tend to over-analyze some things, which is why I am confused at most of the criticism PR2 gets. Usually I only criticize stuff when there are plot holes, discrepancies, or obviously dumb antics. IMO, PR2 didn’t have much of that aside for the “Kaiju were all going to this place all along” retcon. Other than that, the rest of the stuff people complained about were common stuff that are well-established tropes in anime or other similar plots (e.g. teen novices being the last hope, young person builds a robot, giant robots ignoring physics, etc).

Stuff about lighting or colors or other cinematography details I couldn’t care less about, except in extreme cases like maybe for the first few minutes of Black Panther where I could barely see anything on screen because it was too dark.

For RPO, it had some of the similar common tropes in anime (e.g. teen saves the world against powerful corporation, “ugly” girl isn’t ugly at all, etc), but people tend to accept or ignore them completely in their reviews. Unlike in PR2 where they cite these kinds of tropes as ruining the franchise. They even had a Chinese kid, but that’s not pandering while in PR2 having anything China-related is pandering.

Again, not putting either of these films down. Just have this feeling that reviewers weren’t treating these films the same and had a bias against one and for the other one.

[Dobber]

6 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Why like the RX-78 when you have the VF-1, though?

They are in the book though...along with Voltron and MANY others. There was simply no way to put them all in with licensing issues. Too bad, too. 

Chris

[peter]

11 hours ago, ArchieNov said:

Personally I do tend to over-analyze some things, which is why I am confused at most of the criticism PR2 gets. Usually I only criticize stuff when there are plot holes, discrepancies, or obviously dumb antics. IMO, PR2 didn’t have much of that aside for the “Kaiju were all going to this place all along” retcon. Other than that, the rest of the stuff people complained about were common stuff that are well-established tropes in anime or other similar plots (e.g. teen novices being the last hope, young person builds a robot, giant robots ignoring physics, etc).

Stuff about lighting or colors or other cinematography details I couldn’t care less about, except in extreme cases like maybe for the first few minutes of Black Panther where I could barely see anything on screen because it was too dark.

For RPO, it had some of the similar common tropes in anime (e.g. teen saves the world against powerful corporation, “ugly” girl isn’t ugly at all, etc), but people tend to accept or ignore them completely in their reviews. Unlike in PR2 where they cite these kinds of tropes as ruining the franchise. They even had a Chinese kid, but that’s not pandering while in PR2 having anything China-related is pandering.

Again, not putting either of these films down. Just have this feeling that reviewers weren’t treating these films the same and had a bias against one and for the other one.

I actually did notice there was a Chinese kid - Sho in the film. 

I had no idea this character replaced the Japanese character Shoto until I'd read the synopsis of the book afterwards.  A daito and shoto make up a daisho, but I guess they figured this little fact would not be noticed by most folks who don't study Japanese swords and sword arts.

I guess one reason it went over my head was because Sho wasn't gobbing off with a Beijing accent for the entire film like PR2 and ID2.  His presence in the film just didn't take me out of the movie.

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by peter

[kajnrig]

Just saw it, and goddddd I was so absolutely bored throughout this entire thing. The story was dumb, the world was dumb, the characters and writing were dumb... You can do all the referencing you want - and this movie damn well tries to do it the most - but all of that means squat if you can't tell a good story. The constant exposition, just explanation after explanation after explanation for like the first hour of the movie and even in lengthy spurts thereafter...

And none of the references were even all that titillating. Especially the Gundam, it didn't do anything exciting, they didn't incorporate it in any interesting way at all. It was just... there. It was dumb, just like all the other references were dumb.

Way way way WAAAAY worse than PR2, which is a crying shame because the effects absolutely blow PR2 out of the water. The compositing in PR2 was consistently terrible, but you know what it did well? Its Gundam reference, that's what. It did a hell of a better job making me go "YOOOOOO!!!!" with its Gundam reference than this movie did.

[Graham]

On 4/10/2018 at 10:28 PM, ArchieNov said:

Does anyone else besides me think Pacific Rim 2 was better than Ready Player One? I can’t honestly understand why people call PR2 a dumb movie, but don’t say the same thing about RPO.

Also, people criticize the action in PR2 saying it’s not as memorable as those in the first film as there’s too much going on. While I can understand that point of view, isn’t this a lot worse in RPO? There’s always so much going on during the battle scenes that it’s almost impossible to make out everything that’s going on in a single viewing. Sure Kaneda’s bike was there, but I don’t remember it doing anything as cool as it did in Akira. Gundam’s appearance was nice, but again, it didn’t do anything that would make me go wow.

Anyway, not saying RPO was a bad movie. It was enjoyable and lived up to my expectations of it (though admittedly I didn’t really have any hype for it). I just think PR2 was better and most of the faults it had were worse in RPO.

Yep, I enjoyed Pacific Rim more than Ready Player One.

[Convectuoso]

I just watched this yesterday. 

It's different from the book, but still entertaining. Would watch it again. 

[Keith]

On 4/11/2018 at 9:53 PM, Graham said:

Yep, I enjoyed Pacific Rim more than Ready Player One.

Both movies have a Gundam, both are fun, I enjoyed both.

[sh9000]

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by sh9000

[Dynaman]

NOW I can watch this movie.

 

https://www.rifftrax.com/ready-player-one?mc_cid=9c6f4751f4&mc_eid=4d818ab085#preview