Ready Player One (2018)

[ZoqFotPik]

8 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Buried in the middle of the credits was "Consultant ... Masi Oka" I wonder what that was about.

He's done some digital effects work for ILM in the past. Maybe something related to that. Or maybe he worked with Philip Zhao for any Japanese he would need to use. As I understand it, he did all the translations on "Heroes" and helped James Kyson Lee with his pronunciations. 

 

3 hours ago, Stenbeck said:

I didn't completely understand IOI's chokehold on the players and how they became indebted to them...and how they could get away with holding their debtors in forced labor.

It wasn't really that well explained in the movie, but in the book you ended indebted to IOI the same way you do today, credit. When you could make a payment on your suit or computer equipment or whatever, they would come and get you and make you an indentured worker until your debt was paid off. In the book, the world is in extremely bad shape economically and laws allowing this practice have been passed. Offically, there is some government oversight, but it's never made clear how serious it is. 

I thought the movie okay. I knew going in that it would deviate from the book considerably. It would either be unfilmable or incredibly boring.

It had great visuals and action scenes. BOOK SPOILERS:

Spoiler

I wish they would have kept Wade's infiltration of IOI. I thought that was one of the better parts of the book. Also wish they kept Daito's death. I felt that was one major things that brought the remaining four together. Now they just kind of appear and are just sort of there for the movie.

[Frost]

9 hours ago, Stenbeck said:

I didn't completely understand IOI's chokehold on the players and how they became indebted to them...and how they could get away with holding their debtors in forced labor.

That's explained in the book.  Since the OASIS is used by absolutely everyone, companies that provide access to the OASIS rule the roost.  IOI is the largest access point, has the fastest service, and sells the best gear needed to use the OASIS.  That means pretty much everyone owes them money.  That power has allowed them to basically become their own shadow government.  The only thing that's been holding them in check has been some basic "laws" built into the OASIS by Gregarious Games that are meant to keep it as open as possible.  Which is why even someone as poor as Wade could earn OASIS coin by winning games and challenges within OASIS that translate into "real" money in the real world.  I thought it was a shame that the movie didn't get that spirit of open access across.

One thing I really liked in the movie was showing that even the IOI Halliday squad was truly excited when Wade was about to win the Crystal Key and find the Easter egg.  They were as caught up in the exhilaration as any one else.

[Chyromaniac]

On 3/31/2018 at 1:00 AM, thuganomics85 said:

 

Having not read the book (still unsure if I will: I feel like half of the internet thinks is the best, while the other half thinks it is pandering trash)

 

That’s the Internet for you.

Personally, I feel like people who enjoy the movie will probably like the book as well. The story isn’t terribly deep - but it’s basically the same as the film, and it’s a pretty easy read. I don’t consider the pop culture references to be “pandering”- it all felt pretty authentic to the types of conversations I’ve heard or had about nerdy stuff, particularly when I was the age of these characters.

On 3/29/2018 at 4:51 PM, Robert Lynch said:

 

Is there 80s music? I hope to hear some Rush songs...Name the songs you heard so far.

 

Honestly, the one aspect of the movie where I felt somewhat let down was with the soundtrack. Silvestri’s score felt a bit too similar to his 80’s work, Back to the Future and Roger Rabbit specifically. And (given their importance in the book) the lack of Rush is pretty glaring - if nothing else, put Tom Sawyer on for the battle. There are good 80’s tracks in there- Jump, Blue Monday,  etc... but I would’ve preferred more.

[methodwriter85]

I'm surprised Duran Duran didn't show up. They referenced them with one of Nick Rhodes outfits and in dialogue at least twice.

[benteen]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 10:01 PM, Frost said:

I was disappointed that all the challenges were changed! Cline was both an Exec Producer and co-writer so he must be OK with it, but I was bummed out.  I thought the challenges were dumbed down.  I knew they would change up a lot, but I kind of wish I hadn't read the book.  Maybe I would have enjoyed it more.  It was really cleaned up, I thought.  The stacks didn't seem that bad.  The killing of the stack residents wasn't horrifying.  They didn't kill off a major character.  Wade living in the Oasis because of the sheer desperation of his real life didn't come through.  It just seemed like a game, not a life and death fight.

A couple of things I did like.  The Halliday journal and the Curator was a good way to take advantage of the visual medium of a film.  I also like the casting of Halliday.  I thought he did a great job of being weird and endearing at the same time.  A big change from the book I did like was Samantha being the 'inside man' at IOI.  I thought Wade's mission into IOI was the worst part of the book so I was happy with the movie sharing the 'glory' among the cast members.

I thought the movie was fine as a spectacle, but I heart and soul of it was missing for me.

Well, I didn't expect them to keep the War Games challenge and that felt like a logical change.  I'm glad they did have a movie challenge in there though.

YES on the destruction of the stacks.  If I recall, wasn't it completely destroyed?  It felt very toned down and not as horrifying as it should be.  It felt like a "holy shit!" moment in the books and certainly didn't feel that way in the movies.  Wade didn't exactly look that horrified either.

While I like Samantha being involved, I was annoyed at how the infiltration was changed as it was one of the few high-stakes moments in the book and thought it weakened Wade's arc.  Wade's arc is weakened too as we don't see how pathetic his life becomes with him spending all of his time in it and just physically declining.  We don't even see Wade at school, we just hear he's a student.  To me, altering Wade's storyline by not showing how his life declines by his addiction to the Oasis undercut his character arc and lessened the message of how it's not healthy to spend all of your time escaping reality the way that he was.  We never truly see him that isolated in the movie either.  I also didn't like the lack of interaction between Wade and Aech after they met face to face.

Onto book spoilers...

Spoiler

I'm not surprised that Spielberg didn't have the guts to kill Daito's death.  That was another effective, high-stakes moment he altered from the books.  Daito and Sho felt like dead weight in the movie and if he wasn't going to kill Daito, then he should have just eliminated the character completely.

[afterbite]

I was surprised by how bland this movie was. The outside of the Oasis acting definitely won't be winning any awards, that's for sure. I never felt a sense of rising tension. I mean, Wade's aunt is killed and a whole stack is taken out, and he doesn't even take a hot second to mourn. He's too busy macking on his Oasis crush. I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to buy into the stakes when the movie doesn't even bother to buy into the stakes. That said, H (or however it was spelled) was pretty funny. People in the showing I went to were hooting at the Shining parts, which I thought were entertaining but not necessarily hoot worthy. I'm a child of the 80s and sufficiently geeky so you'd think this would be catnip for me, but apparently I am not at all the target audience. All I wanted was for it to be over, which of course it wasn't because it was 2h20m long, ffs.

Edited April 4, 2018 by afterbite

[Captain Carrot]

I thought it was enjoyable. There some great moments (H experiencing The Shining was the standout for me), moments that felt like classic Spielberg, and some cool visuals (Gundam!). But it just didn't excite me the way my favorites do.

[benteen]

I wish they had included the bit from the books where Wade and Sam were starting their own networks on the Oasis. 

[JessePinkman]

13 hours ago, afterbite said:

I was surprised by how bland this movie was. The outside of the Oasis acting definitely won't be winning any awards, that's for sure. I never felt a sense of rising tension. I mean, Wade's aunt is killed and a whole stack is taken out, and he doesn't even take a hot second to mourn. He's too busy macking on his Oasis crush.

"You killed my mom's sister!"

She was your aunt, you called her Aunt Whatever. What a weird line.

[benteen]

3 minutes ago, JessePinkman said:

"You killed my mom's sister!"

She was your aunt, you called her Aunt Whatever. What a weird line.

I thought that line was to reflect the fact the Wade wasn't close with his aunt.

[afterbite]

7 minutes ago, JessePinkman said:

13 hours ago, afterbite said:

I was surprised by how bland this movie was. The outside of the Oasis acting definitely won't be winning any awards, that's for sure. I never felt a sense of rising tension. I mean, Wade's aunt is killed and a whole stack is taken out, and he doesn't even take a hot second to mourn. He's too busy macking on his Oasis crush.

 

"You killed my mom's sister!"

She was your aunt, you called her Aunt Whatever. What a weird line.

Agreed. Also weird, when Wade was doing the rousing speech about how they'd all lost someone/something so rally to the flag and the camera focused in on Daito with his eyes closed and his jaw clenched as if that line was personally relevant to him but I don't recall him actually losing anyone in the movie.

Quote

@benteen

I thought that line was to reflect the fact the Wade wasn't close with his aunt.

Doesn't make it less odd, especially given that, when he found out the stack was going to be bombed, he freaked out and desperately called his aunt and willed her to pick up. He reacted immediately to the threat with clear panic and clear concern for his aunt, yet afterwards there was absolutely no reflection on of discussion of this horrible thing that IOI had just done to him specifically (and was egregiously horrible in general) and she's demoted to 'my mom's sister'.

It's part of the broader tapestry of inconsistency that was this movie.

Edited April 4, 2018 by afterbite

[GaT]

4 hours ago, benteen said:

I thought that line was to reflect the fact the Wade wasn't close with his aunt.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but in the book I don't think he even liked her, she just happened to be his only family.

[Silver Raven]

The Dom reviews Ready Player One, the book:

And the movie:

 

Warning.  He does swear.

[TDT]

On 4/1/2018 at 5:23 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I'm surprised Duran Duran didn't show up. They referenced them with one of Nick Rhodes outfits and in dialogue at least twice.

Plus in the book their song"Union Of The Snake" was played in the Distracted Globe..sad that they replaced it with "Stayin'Alive" for the dance scene

[Robert Lynch]

This was not a bad movie and could you believe my father enjoyed this movie? This is the same guy who seen every video game-based movie in the 90s-00s who would go on an almost Murray Goldberg rampage with lines like "Who talks like that?", "Are they serious", "This is a movie", and others like that. But my dad loved this movie. He really enjoyed it and that surprised me. I was ready for the same complaints he had more on every movie based on a video game, but he loved it. Everyone loved it. I loved it, too. The Shining sequence was amazing. That was quite a well-done move on Steven Spielberg. Having never read the book, I liked the 80s hints here and there. Sad, there was no Rush music, but enjoyed seeing the Rush poster in Halliday's room. Yay, Rush.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Robert Lynch

[frogzapper]

On 3/31/2018 at 7:01 PM, Frost said:

I was disappointed that all the challenges were changed! Cline was both an Exec Producer and co-writer so he must be OK with it, but I was bummed out.  I thought the challenges were dumbed down.  I knew they would change up a lot, but I kind of wish I hadn't read the book.  Maybe I would have enjoyed it more.  It was really cleaned up, I thought.  The stacks didn't seem that bad.  The killing of the stack residents wasn't horrifying.  They didn't kill off a major character.  Wade living in the Oasis because of the sheer desperation of his real life didn't come through.  It just seemed like a game, not a life and death fight.

A couple of things I did like.  The Halliday journal and the Curator was a good way to take advantage of the visual medium of a film.  I also like the casting of Halliday.  I thought he did a great job of being weird and endearing at the same time.  A big change from the book I did like was Samantha being the 'inside man' at IOI.  I thought Wade's mission into IOI was the worst part of the book so I was happy with the movie sharing the 'glory' among the cast members.

I thought the movie was fine as a spectacle, but I heart and soul of it was missing for me.

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything you said. I really liked the book and felt that they changed a little too much for the movie. I felt like they kind of changed the tone of the book in the movie, making it more of a fun, fast, action movie. I thought the tone of the book was a little bit darker (but still fun) and that the IOI corporation and Sorrento came across a little more menacing in the book. In the movie I found Sorrento to be a little too cartoon-ish, and I thought the post-it note with his password was pretty silly. I also had to kind of roll my eyes at the way the employees at IOI were cheering at the end - they just seemed a little too enthusiastic and sunshine-y in their powder blue uniforms.

I was also kind of disappointed that they changed the challenges so much. I mean, I get it, the way the challenges were done in the book wouldn't have translated well to the big screen, but they seemed to go through them way too quickly in the movie. Also, I have nothing against Tye Sheridan, but he really didn't do that much for me as Wade in the movie.

That said, I thought the movie taken on its own (ignoring the book) was a fun entertaining movie, and I enjoyed it for what it was. 

[Glory]

Well, I don't think I've ever hated a movie more than Ready Player One. That was just a steaming pile of garbage through and through. 

My husband had not read the book and felt like there were many unanswered questions as to the why and how of the Easter Egg hunt plus he had questions about the future Earth that were never addressed.

I have read the book and was just constantly disappointed. The challenges were so far removed from what we saw in the book as to be laughable. Art3mis was given a big old fuck you by the screen writer and directing - I get it that it's Hollywood but you really could not have found one kinda chubby actress to play the part? Seriously? Plus, there was very little context to tell us that, yes, Art3mis is the best gunter out there, bar none. That all got glossed way over.

Daito and Shoto might as well have been non-existent. Their friendship was a sweet part of the book and that wasn't shown on screen at all. 

Aetch was the only kind of good character and even she got the shaft.

I was extremely disappointed that Ludus didn't feature into the movie at all as that was a big part of what made Halliday so endearing as a character. That he wanted everyone to be able to play his game and find his keys. 

Ugh... I'm so worked up about this, but the movie was just BAD. 

[BooBear]

Ok, I have not read the book. But I enjoyed it for not reading the book. Still I am sure I will forget it 10 minutes later. It was that kind of Spielberg production. One ordinary guy saves the world.... but in this case seemed like it was a world maybe not worth saving. Also, how did the Stacks survive twisters - which they do have in Ohio?

I thought at the end the creator was telling Wade to destroy his creation. I thought the message was going to be that people had to get out in the world to make it better.  Nope. The message becomes... keep playing your games but just do it less often. Err ok. 

I thought the last hour could have been 20 minutes. An editor needed to get in there asap. 

[benteen]

It definitely dragged at the end, which can be said of some of Spielberg's movies.

[wanderingstar]

On 4/14/2018 at 2:16 PM, Glory said:

Well, I don't think I've ever hated a movie more than Ready Player One. That was just a steaming pile of garbage through and through. 

My husband had not read the book and felt like there were many unanswered questions as to the why and how of the Easter Egg hunt plus he had questions about the future Earth that were never addressed.

I have read the book and was just constantly disappointed. The challenges were so far removed from what we saw in the book as to be laughable. Art3mis was given a big old fuck you by the screen writer and directing - I get it that it's Hollywood but you really could not have found one kinda chubby actress to play the part? Seriously? Plus, there was very little context to tell us that, yes, Art3mis is the best gunter out there, bar none. That all got glossed way over.

Daito and Shoto might as well have been non-existent. Their friendship was a sweet part of the book and that wasn't shown on screen at all. 

Aetch was the only kind of good character and even she got the shaft.

I was extremely disappointed that Ludus didn't feature into the movie at all as that was a big part of what made Halliday so endearing as a character. That he wanted everyone to be able to play his game and find his keys. 

Ugh... I'm so worked up about this, but the movie was just BAD. 

Agree with all of this, except I read the book and really didn't care for it. That said, the few interesting things about the book (the Daito/Shoto friendship, Ar3mis being a fully realized character, even the time Wade spent in the debt servitude prison) were all left out, and this movie was the worse for it.

[BetterButter]

[Anela]

I still haven't seen this. I liked the book when I read it three years ago, but it was a bit busy with the facts. Maybe I just read it too fast, should have let it sit a bit more. 

[methodwriter85]

I love the Honest Trailer for making fun of Sam's bullshit "disfigurement." Yes, Sam, Wade is going to be so disappointed that you bring to mind a cross between Rachel Lee Cooke (no relation) and Winona Ryder.

[thuganomics85]

Quote

I love the Honest Trailer for making fun of Sam's bullshit "disfigurement." Yes, Sam, Wade is going to be so disappointed that you bring to mind a cross between Rachel Lee Cooke (no relation) and Winona Ryder.

My personal favorite will always be that god-awful Rollerball remake years ago, where Rebecca Romijn's character had a little scar on her cheek, and that was suppose to make her unattractive: right down to her even giving a grand speech about "ugly" she is.  All I could think was "Uh, there are plenty of people out there who thought Rebecca Romijn was hot when she was blue and covered in scales.  A scar on her cheek ain't going to cut it, film."

So, yeah, this film either needed to drop that bit or actually have the disfigurement be more then just simply painting half of Olivia Cooke's face a different color.

Edited July 26, 2018 by thuganomics85

[Which Tyler]

My wife and I just looked at each other and said "she's the one who should be disappointed"

[methodwriter85]

Aww. Thought Tye Sheridan makes for a very cute twink. Nice tight ass and a very pretty set of lips.

[Megan]

This should have been "Inspired by...",  I was disappointed.

I'm usually not all IT WAS DIFFERENT IN THE BOOK until recently with ASOIAF. This was so different. Too different. Maybe both would have been better animated.

How did Rush have zero presence?

Edited July 30, 2018 by Megan

[Hanahope]

I thought the movie was good and a decent enough adaptation from the book.  I understand the desire to make more group challenges than solo ones, and they couldn’t really do the insert into the film thing. 

Yeah the book had Z  in the debt area, while the movie changed it to Art3mis.  Same idea and plot line covered, just a bit differently.  It kept the spirit of the book.

[methodwriter85]

Oh my god, that faint red mark over the eye of this reviewer's conventionally pretty face is HIDEOUS!

Edited October 27, 2018 by methodwriter85

[AimingforYoko]

1 hour ago, methodwriter85 said:

Oh my god, that faint red mark over the eye of this reviewer's conventionally pretty face is HIDEOUS!

Hey, I don't think it's that ba- Ah, I see what you did there.

[GaT]

I finally saw this. What a mess. You would think this would be a perfect movie for Steven Spielberg to direct, I don't understand how he turned it into crap.

[benteen]

5 hours ago, GaT said:

I finally saw this. What a mess. You would think this would be a perfect movie for Steven Spielberg to direct, I don't understand how he turned it into crap.

If Spielberg had started his career 20 years ago after Saving Private Ryan, he would not be acknowledged as a legendary filmmaker.  Martin Scorsese still delivers like 3 great films a decade.

All I can say about the Ready Player One movies months after its released is that I struggle to remember that I actually saw it.

[supposebly]

I saw this on the plane last week. Not knowing anything about the source material, it left me rather confused. Was this promoting the Oasis? Was this telling the audience that staying in the Oasis was better than living in the real world? And seriously, did these people have jobs? How did they eat? Obviously, few spent money on developing real estate.

Why was is so important not to have the bad guy have control of the Oasis? Too many ads?

I suspected at the end that the Oasis wasn't supposed to be where they should all end up but I really wasn't clear on the whole thing. So, kind of a mess, methinks.

[GaT]

2 hours ago, supposebly said:

And seriously, did these people have jobs? How did they eat? Obviously, few spent money on developing real estate.

You could earn money in the Oasis which translated to money in the real world, but yeah, they didn't make it clear.

[supposebly]

3 hours ago, GaT said:

You could earn money in the Oasis which translated to money in the real world,

Oh, I had no idea. So, the main character lived in, I think it was a bus? And a lot of people seemed to live in terrible circumstances. So, he decided not to make money in the Oasis? Or just spent way too much time looking for that key. I really don't get this movie or the Oasis. Whether it was a good thing (the voice-over in the trailer seemed to think so) or not. Maybe it was the fact that I watched on a tiny airplane screen.

[GaT]

1 hour ago, supposebly said:

Oh, I had no idea. So, the main character lived in, I think it was a bus? And a lot of people seemed to live in terrible circumstances. So, he decided not to make money in the Oasis? Or just spent way too much time looking for that key. I really don't get this movie or the Oasis. Whether it was a good thing (the voice-over in the trailer seemed to think so) or not. Maybe it was the fact that I watched on a tiny airplane screen.

He lived with his aunt, & the bus was his secret hiding place where he could go into the Oasis undisturbed. The only reason I know that was because I read the book, the movie didn't make it clear. I'm sure the book mentioned how he got money, but I can't remember.

[Frost]

On 12/17/2018 at 5:54 PM, GaT said:

I'm sure the book mentioned how he got money, but I can't remember.

In the book, he was still in school, and that provided free access to some places in the Oasis.  He could "go" to various gaming planets and win currency by winning the games.  I thought it was a shame the movie dropped the whole school and free education that was part of the Oasis design.  The Ready Player One novel has a number of problems, but I've read it multiple times because it's a great premise and it does have some interesting ideas and characters in it.  The movie squandered a lot of the premise.  
 

[benteen]

I enjoyed the book a great deal.  If I had one real problem with it, it was that the stakes never felt too high being in the digital world.  When the final battle is fought with avatars, that means there's no threat to the characters and diminishes the stakes greatly.  The book does have some high stakes moments but still, being in a digital world doesn't feel that dangerous.

[Silver Raven]

On 12/19/2018 at 7:05 AM, benteen said:

I enjoyed the book a great deal.  If I had one real problem with it, it was that the stakes never felt too high being in the digital world.  When the final battle is fought with avatars, that means there's no threat to the characters and diminishes the stakes greatly.  The book does have some high stakes moments but still, being in a digital world doesn't feel that dangerous.

But they were being captured and forced into slave labor IRL.