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Ready Player One (2018, Steven Spielberg)

Started by Small Man Big Horse, July 25, 2017, 05:27:51 PM

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Small Man Big Horse

So the first trailer for this aired at Comic Con, if I hadn't read the book I'd think it looked pretty great but it doesn't reveal any of the actual plot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znavw4akfoY

I didn't hate the book as much as some and thought the first half at least was throwaway fun, but I'd be amazed if a decent film can be made out of it without a lot of changes, especially to the sometimes clunky dialogue. I'm not a big fan of Spielberg either, Tintin was surprisingly decent but bar that he hasn't made a film that I've enjoyed in a long time, so unless the reviews are positive I won't be rushing to see it. Oh, and the way he's credited in the trailed bemused as well:



Which might apply to his work pre-2000, but not anymore.

Edit: Here's an AV Club piece on the trailer not being well received by fans of the novel - http://www.avclub.com/article/ready-player-one-backlash-has-begun-258509

Glebe

Wonka's 'Pure Imagination', there... of course, Spielberg tried to coax Gene Wilder out of retirement for this before he passed away. I haven't read the book, but apparently Spielberg is avoiding putting any direct references to his own movies in it, in which case, given how much a part of popular culture his films are, you have to wonder if he was the right person to direct it, really. Have to admit, I couldn't really spot that many Easter eggs amid the murk of that trailer, but this article reveals a lot. Freddy Kruger in a Spielberg movie!



Spielberg has stated that the Iron Giant is "a major player".

Btw, here's a slightly-different version of that trailer.

Twed

It would be good if this movie served as one central cultural dumping ground to separate all the simpering reference dorks from the rest of society.

https://twitter.com/Hatalie/status/889557578769997825


Twed

Breed this kind of person out of society.

Twed

I just can't bring myself to let this one be. I think it is actively making the world a worse place.

mothman

Is that Rush on the soundtrack at the end? Says it all.

brat-sampson

Read it, disliked *most* of it, bar a couple of clever ideas. From watching the trailer I don't know what the fuck this movie *is*, seeing as I don't remember any destructive race in the original, or Freddy Kreuger or whatever else was 'hidden' in this trailer for the express purpose of YouTubers to be able to scour through it, circle stills in Paint and gain subs for saying nothing more than hey!
.
.
.
Remember *this*?!

It's the absolute nadir of Family Guy Star Wars 'Mixed up quote' meme image 20's-baiting false-nostalgia anal seepage.

phantom_power

I enjoyed the book as a bit of sci-fi fluff and am looking forward to the film as the same. I don't understand all this shit about the right or wrong way to be a nerd. What's so bad about liking pop culture references? Not everything has to be nuanced and sophisticated. There as also room for the cheap thrill of the common reference point

Twed

Quote from: phantom_power on July 25, 2017, 11:48:47 PM
I enjoyed the book as a bit of sci-fi fluff and am looking forward to the film as the same. I don't understand all this shit about the right or wrong way to be a nerd. What's so bad about liking pop culture references? Not everything has to be nuanced and sophisticated. There as also room for the cheap thrill of the common reference point
https://twitter.com/donniemnemonic/status/889215615717605376

Blumf

It just looks so dull and unimaginative. I'm okay with a bit of nostalgia-wank, but it needs some wit behind it. I doubt present day Spielberg has the chops.

Skip Bittman

I got a free signed copy of it at the first Oculus Connect a few years ago for no apparent reason.

It is the first book I have ever tossed out a window not long after starting it. I know the signature of a man previously known for his Buckaroo Banzai fanfic is highly prized, but it had to be done. Is it too late to fling Spielberg out a window or would that send the wrong message?

BlodwynPig

My new film Hobo II - The urban wilderness features a cameo from London (The Littlest Hobo)

Skip Bittman

There's still time for reshoots. Add Paco.


BlodwynPig


Catalogue Trousers

That trailer annoys me immensely. The Iron Giant, Doc Brown's DeLorean, Starsky and Hutch's Gran Torino, what looks like a Tron lightcycle mated with Kaneda's bike from Akira, Freddy Krueger, something clearly designed to evoke a Peter Jackson cave-troll...yeah, it does all feel like this may as well be called The 'Member Berries Movie.

That said, films that are basically references held together by the pretence of a plot can be as marvellous as Gremlins II. Maybe this will be more like that, and not so much like a bloody Seltzerberg debacle. Fingers crossed.

phantom_power

Quote from: Twed on July 25, 2017, 11:59:55 PM
https://twitter.com/donniemnemonic/status/889215615717605376

Anyone who uses the phrase "Bazinga-ass" when criticising lazy pop-culture references has already lost the argument

samadriel

The book's an odd duck, very much a 'young adult' thing, yet steeped in a period of pop culture older than present young adults would know. Still, it was enjoyable enough, and I agree with p_p, but I don't know about this adaptation... I pictured the OASIS as much more vivid than the blue-grey mess we see in the trailer. We'll see.

Repeater

Quote from: phantom_power on July 26, 2017, 06:17:14 AM
Anyone who uses the phrase "Bazinga-ass" when criticising lazy pop-culture references has already lost the argument

Nah not really, they're surely skewering this kind of shite, base reference stuff.

Quote from: Repeater on July 26, 2017, 09:23:12 AM
Nah not really, they're surely skewering this kind of shite, base reference stuff.

Yep, that's how I took it as well. Also, I don't think the initial criticism is about lazy references, it's about how fucking awful the writing is and lazy referencing replacing attempts to write actual descriptive writing. That passage alone has some of the most obnoxious lines I've ever read.

spock rogers

Difficult to imagine the same man directed Jaws, going by that CGI dogshit of a trailer.

The thing I couldn't believe about this book was the fact that it was almost identical to the type of stuff I would write when I was about 11 or 12. It is terrible. I mean, look at the state of this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFcnGXgXgAIJaLX.jpg

The fact that a grown man wrote that. And it got published. And got bought by Hollywood. And made into a film by STEVEN SPIELBERG. Fucking astonishing. Maybe the reason I'm so pissed off is just because I paid actual money for this book. Fuck's sake.

mikeyg27

I seem to be obsessively hate-watching this trailer. I dunno why, I didn't even read the book.

Is it just me or is there an amount of lens-flare in this that even JJ Abrams would think was a bit much?

Phil_A

Someone lent me the book, I couldn't get past the opening chapter because he wouldn't shut up about Ghostbusters.

It seems like we're in an era of published fan-fiction now, and this is the nadir of that. Literally just invoking aspects of popular culture as a substitute for any kind creative thought. The novel equivalent of a facebook meme page.

Repeater

Aye I started reading this shite then quickly gave up. I actual couldn't believe when I heard it was getting made into a film. Ridiculous.

Dr Syntax Head

I was going to buy the book because I like the cover with all the winnebagos etc. I won't bother now. Got S4C written all over it after that trailer.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Dr Syntax Head on July 26, 2017, 12:16:10 PM
I was going to buy the book because I like the cover with all the winnebagos etc. I won't bother now. Got S4C written all over it after that trailer.


Sebastian Cobb

I should really pull my finger out my arse and read the book. Other books keep getting in the way though.

A Youtube reading of an Ernest Cline poem called Nerd Porn Auteur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSKBkahjtOc&feature=youtu.be

It's every bit as bad as the title suggests. Also, obviously it's NSFW and there's a chance you might want to go on a killing spree after hearing it.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I keep misreading the title of this thread as Randy Player One. That sounds like a much better film.

Mister Six

I liked the bit with all the photorealistic cop cars barreling around like they're in a video game, but only for the novelty of it. The rest of it looks pretty dismal, and I'm not as opposed to reference-heavy stuff as some on here are. Can't believe this is a Spielberg movie. In a bad way.