Ready Player One (2018, Steven Spielberg)

[Catalogue Trousers]

I've now speed-read Cline's proposed script for a second Buckaroo Banzai film. Dear me, it is abysmal.

Reference after reference after reference. Plus, he drags in Doc Savage and his Fabulous Five - the primary inspirations for Buckaroo and the Hong Kong Cavaliers - and casually kills most of them off - and has Ham, the stuffy, precise lawyer, saying 'Boom-shakka-lakka'. And then hits the supreme heights of laziness by having the script end with exactly the same closing credits routine. Thank fuck it didn't get made.

EDIT New page in my super-cool DeLorean with Ghostbusters number plates and a NON-FUNCTIONING flux capacitor, dudemeisters

[popcorn]

My biggest problem with things like Ready Player One is the amount of people who think I'd like it.

This is the struggle of the Good Nerd.

I'm constantly meeting people who immediately assess me as a nerd, which is correct, but as I slowly disabuse them of their assumptions that I like Dr Who, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Starcraft, board games and Game of Thrones, switch to the equally depressing and inaccurate "you hate everything ".

It's tough, being a Good Nerd. But it is noble and necessary work.

[phantom_power]

Christ you lot sound like a load of snobby arses

[Repeater]

fuck up

[touchingcloth]

This is the struggle of the Good Nerd.

I'm constantly meeting people who immediately assess me as a nerd, which is correct, but as I slowly disabuse them of their assumptions that I like Dr Who, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Starcraft, board games and Game of Thrones, switch to the equally depressing and inaccurate "you hate everything ".

It's tough, being a Good Nerd. But it is noble and necessary work.

You don't like Battlestar Galactica? If you try series 3 episodes 6-9 you really can't fail to get hooked, though really you'll only get the most out of it if you watch the earlier series plus the 2003 miniseries.

I jest, of course. I'm in a similar position to you, though I can add Star Trek to the list of things I've never seen, and have come to realise in the past couple of years that pretty much any time someone makes a reference that I fail to grasp, yet is obviously a reference thanks to the conspiratorial look of glee and excitement in their eyes, that that reference is to Game of Thrones. "This is like when a level ten warlock set his phaser to stun and rode his Nimbus 1138 to slay the dragons of Mordor!" I'm sorry, I do not watch Game of Thrones.

[hewantstolurkatad]

This is the struggle of the Good Nerd.

I'm constantly meeting people who immediately assess me as a nerd, which is correct, but as I slowly disabuse them of their assumptions that I like Dr Who, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Starcraft, board games and Game of Thrones, switch to the equally depressing and inaccurate "you hate everything ".

It's tough, being a Good Nerd. But it is noble and necessary work.

Ach, I'd say it's easier than it was ten years ago. You've gotta spot what's happening and stop their shite suggestions. There's basically always something you can suggest that kinda fits within their worldview and interests while also dismissing all of their assumptions about you in the process (e.g. the way I'd talk about Fury Road would likely identify how little interest I have in several other big geek franchise things)

Also helps if you can talk about their interests while repeatedly reinforcing you don't like their stuff yourself... I mean, I could easily talk to someone for ages about their love of board games but I've never actually played any of those D&D type deals.



All that being said, on a bad date I had a few weeks ago, the girl's sole attempt to come up with conversation beyond the initial "who are you" type stuff  was "have you seen the new season of Game of Thrones yet?"

[Catalogue Trousers]

Yeah, I've had two co-workers, generally sound people, who - on discovering my nerddom - tried to sell me on Harry Potter and Twilight. I've now seen most of the Potter films and they're okay stuff, but nowt special - and have yet to either read or watch Twilight. Some things Mark Kermode cannot convince me as to their worth. That said, another co-worker who was a Star Trek DS9 fan, about fifteen years my senior, used to address me jokingly as 'old man' in a Sisko/Dax manner. Which was rather charming, to be honest.

[touchingcloth]

Speaking as a Harry Potter fan, the films are dogshit. I enjoy the books and could spend some time extolling J.K. Rowling's virtues in general and defending the Potter books in particular as something that adults can enjoy unironically, but I'd be doing so with the bias as someone who first read the books as a pre-teen and finished them as a teenager, so I can't say whether an actual adult coming to them cold and with preconceptions formed by the films would have the same experience with the books.

Edit: I think that's the most annoying thing about the types of nerd being discussed here - not that they enjoy watching or reading particular things, but that they can't wrap their heads around someone who shares only superficial similarities and interests with them not enjoying the same things. It's fine if you like Firefly and I think Joss Whedon's a load of old tut, let's move on.

[popcorn]

I'm in a similar position to you, though I can add Star Trek to the list of things I've never seen, and have come to realise in the past couple of years that pretty much any time someone makes a reference that I fail to grasp, yet is obviously a reference thanks to the conspiratorial look of glee and excitement in their eyes, that that reference is to Game of Thrones. "This is like when a level ten warlock set his phaser to stun and rode his Nimbus 1138 to slay the dragons of Mordor!" I'm sorry, I do not watch Game of Thrones.

Might have told this story here before, but:

I was between accommodations for a bit and did a six-week stent renting a room in a coworker's house with a bunch of awful nerds. There was a map hung on the living room wall. I studied it for a moment but couldn't figure out where it was, so I said "Where is this?" One of the nerds chuckled and said something impenetrable like "Dare not ye ask, lest the Throng of Heldaar descend!" and I said "What?" and she blinked and said, with pity, "Oh. You actually don't know," as if she'd discovered I couldn't read. "It's from Game of Thrones."

[newbridge]

The kind of nerddom that bothers me is perfectly encapsulated by that RPO excerpt, i.e. where the nerdy (and let's be honest, adolescent) stuff is the entire extent of an adult human being's horizons. I quite enjoy Harry Potter and Marvel movies, for example, but I don't think they are the life-affirming greatest things ever created. The IMDB rankings are a great example of this nerddom, where The Avengers is rated as the best movie ever made or whatever nonsense.

[touchingcloth]

Might have told this story here before, but:

I was between accommodations for a bit and did a six-week stent renting a room in a coworker's house with a bunch of awful nerds. There was a map hung on the living room wall. I studied it for a moment but couldn't figure out where it was, so I said "Where is this?" One of the nerds chuckled and said something impenetrable like "Dare not ye ask, lest the Throng of Heldaar descend!" and I said "What?" and she blinked and said, with pity, "Oh. You actually don't know," as if she'd discovered I couldn't read. "It's from Game of Thrones."

That's uncannily like the kind of thing I get. When I was planning to move up from Bristol to Salford, I was chatting about my plans over lunch with some people at work, and one of them gave me a sudden wide-eyed nudge, nudge, wink, wink face and said something like "so...you'll be dealing with the Brethren of Balthazar now, then!" and when I looked all confused he said "you know...if you go up north...the Brethren...you'll be dealing with the Brethren...up north...the Brethren they have up north these days...the Brethren of Balthazar."

He looked crushed when I finally had to ask if that was something from Game of Thrones.

[Phil_A]

Might have told this story here before, but:

I was between accommodations for a bit and did a six-week stent renting a room in a coworker's house with a bunch of awful nerds. There was a map hung on the living room wall. I studied it for a moment but couldn't figure out where it was, so I said "Where is this?" One of the nerds chuckled and said something impenetrable like "Dare not ye ask, lest the Throng of Heldaar descend!" and I said "What?" and she blinked and said, with pity, "Oh. You actually don't know," as if she'd discovered I couldn't read. "It's from Game of Thrones."

Not that I should be defending Games Of Thrones, but people in that show don't really talk like that. It's usually a bit "earthier." Part of the appeal of it initially was that it was more of a grim medieval saga with the fantasy stuff in the background. It's when they started to foreground it that it went a bit shit.

The kind of nerddom that bothers me is perfectly encapsulated by that RPO excerpt, i.e. where the nerdy (and let's be honest, adolescent) stuff is the entire extent of an adult human being's horizons. I quite enjoy Harry Potter and Marvel movies, for example, but I don't think they are the life-affirming greatest things ever created. The IMDB rankings are a great example of this nerddom, where The Avengers is rated as the best movie ever made or whatever nonsense.

That's a fair point. It's okay to like things that are part of popular culture, it's just when you define your whole personality and lifestyle around it like Mr Ready Player One that it can get very tedious.

[popcorn]

Not that I should be defending Games Of Thrones, but people in that show don't really talk like that.

I don't watch Game of Thrones.

[touchingcloth]

The kind of nerddom that bothers me is perfectly encapsulated by that RPO excerpt, i.e. where the nerdy (and let's be honest, adolescent) stuff is the entire extent of an adult human being's horizons. I quite enjoy Harry Potter and Marvel movies, for example, but I don't think they are the life-affirming greatest things ever created. The IMDB rankings are a great example of this nerddom, where The Avengers is rated as the best movie ever made or whatever nonsense.

Hardline nerds. I'm quite comfortable with calling myself a nerd, and I think that by just about any definition of the word that is what I am, but I dislike the kind of nerd who as you say turns that label into their entire identity, and goes round spending their money on endless Marvel t-shirts and loot crates, and who'll brook no dissent from the Great Nerd Consensus. Why can't I love Star Wars and Blade Runner but have no time for Dr Who or Star Trek? Why would I want or care about an expensively accurate desktop figurine of a Wookie that makes a big loud "nnnggggrrrrrrrrrrnnnnn" sound? Why would I lose my shit at the idea of a "man cave" covered in posters of Haynes manual diagrams of the guts of an AT-AT and with a Starship Enterprise control deck instead of actual chairs, when I'm perfectly happy watching watching the Iron Man films back to back in bed with my partner followed by, I don't know, Working Girl, or anything else that's as far from adamantium claws and mithril beards as can be imagined but is still enjoyable in its own way?

Adolescent is entirely the correct word. There's more to life than Pokemon, and admitting that doesn't make you any less sincere in your love of Buffy.

[Phil_A]

I don't watch Game of Thrones.

Edit: nm.

[popcorn]

Good for you, go and make yourself a special badge or something.

e: I've decided to delete my sarcy response because we nerds must learn to be kinder to each other.

[slicesofjim]

The kind of nerddom that bothers me is perfectly encapsulated by that RPO excerpt, i.e. where the nerdy (and let's be honest, adolescent) stuff is the entire extent of an adult human being's horizons. I quite enjoy Harry Potter and Marvel movies, for example, but I don't think they are the life-affirming greatest things ever created. The IMDB rankings are a great example of this nerddom, where The Avengers is rated as the best movie ever made or whatever nonsense.

It's not even the best 'The Avengers'.

Used to be that being a nerd meant actually mastering something, be it a skill or a body of knowledge about a subject. Standards have slipped, and the narrow adolescent horizons you cite seem to be at the heart of it. Ironic given that the best sci-fi like Star Trek always had quite deep themes and references to history, philosophy etc. 

[Phil_A]

e: I've decided to delete my sarcy response because we nerds must learn to be kinder to each other.

Fair enough, I withdraw my earlier sarcy response to your response. GoT isn't worth getting into a scrap over, really.

[touchingcloth]

Or knavish fisticuffs, as the goblin wives on Game of Thrones say.

[Mister Six]

Speaking as a Harry Potter fan, the films are dogshit.

Really? The first two are dross but the third one is gorgeous (also the only one directed by someone interesting) and i was quite impressed by how the plot turned out as the films went along. Surprisingly affecting and detailed.

I say that as someone who read the first four books aged about 19 but then got bored and dropped them, and watched the films in a bit of a marathon at the behest of my now-wife a couple of years back.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Yep, the third Harry Potter film is a pretty incredible achievement considering the two things it had before it. Even with Columbus remaining as producer and most of the other higher ups remaining the same, it definitely comes across as Cuaron managing to gain substantial control over the project in a way that none of the later directors did. It doesn't seem like he was some kind of nightmare on set or anything either, just a very harmonious mix of project and director.

Honestly, I tend to credit literally everything that's good about the films to a mix of Cuaron and some fun casting choices.

[touchingcloth]

Overall the films are dogshit, three and four being the exceptions. I'm always surprised about three getting the most love, as four seems like the best of the bunch to me by a clear distance. I'm biased against PoA in general though because of the fucking time-turner - I mean, what was she thinking?

[Mister Six]

Overall the films are dogshit, three and four being the exceptions. I'm always surprised about three getting the most love, as four seems like the best of the bunch to me by a clear distance. I'm biased against PoA in general though because of the fucking time-turner - I mean, what was she thinking?

PoA was the only one of the books that I read that seemed like a really great, rollicking adventure. That plus Cuaron's lush direction (and practical decisions  too - why did Columbus not bother demarcating the changing seasons until he came along?) make it an obvious stand-out.

Plus the tournament feels like a slightly scarier retread of the puzzle dungeon from Philosopher's Stone.

[touchingcloth]

I think I prefer GoF because that's the film where the cast are directed the best. The three leads are ropey at the best of times (Grint's the only one who I think captures something of the character from the books, Radcliffe's, y'know, fine, and Watson is pretty dire), but Mike Newell really does get their best performances out of them, and does interesting things with ancillary characters like Filch which it's a shame didn't get continued in the later films. Some great casting decisions in that film, too, Moody and Skeeter in particular matched their book counterparts very nicely.

I think overall it's the film which most successfully captures the tone of the books, neither all dark nor all light, but somewhere in the middle with moments of genuine comedy. Most of the directors seemed to have relied on the twins for light relief, but by fuck are those actors dreadful - the problem with tying yourself to a young cast and then rolling the dice to see what sort of actors they grow into. Even Newell wasn't able to get anything decent out of Gambon, but I kind of like how obviously the older British thesps in these films just phone their performances in.

[Twed]

https://theoutline.com/post/2076/ready-player-one-movie-bad

YESSSSS

[Blumf]

Meanwhile, in a very nearby parallel universe, Spielberg announces the Ready Player One movie will have the lead recast as a woman. Half of Twitter breaks their neck with the head-spinning and cognitive dissonance. SJW breaking down in tears trying to support the shit story. Gamerbros sneering themselves into oblivion trying to defend the integrity of the lazy Bazinga-ass plot void.

The rest of the world thinks the new Avengers movie is all right... bit forgettable. Wonders why the Internet seems a bit better recently.

[marquis_de_sad]

There's this other twitter thread picking some of the worst bits of the novel.

https://twitter.com/donniemnemonic/status/889215615717605376

I wanted to show this to someone put it's been deleted. Now I am sad.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I wanted to show this to someone put it's been deleted. Now I am sad.

Bec Hill is currently reading the book and tweeting her hatred of it, along with sections of text, if that's any help?

[SavageHedgehog]

The backlash had the curious effect of making me read it. I thought it might be a bit of a guilty pleasure, and that came to pass for the first third or so. Now guilty pleasure is a phrase I generally avoid, but nonetheless just about the only phrase which can accurately describe the genuine enjoyment I got out of something which was quite so obviously poorly written and unimaginative. But man, does it pall after a while, and it was a chore to finish. Some people have said that a lot of the quotes being plastered over the internet are out of context, which is true, but the context isn't much more than similar prose and cliches. It does have the odd novel literary device, but these are often unappealing and laboured, e.g. a chapter consisting of an old-school chatroom text transcript. And no one would have the time to have watched as many things as many times as the insufferable protagonist claims, certainly not by 18.

It makes a slight recovery towards the end, but then fumbles the ball pretty badly. To whit:
1) The protagonist sees his best friend in the real world for the first time. Turns out his best friend is actually an obese African-American female, but that's no big deal to cool cats like Ernest Cline or his surrogate. Of course his love interest turns out to be a white supermodel-type just as gorgeous as her avatar but for a birthmark on her face, even though she had implied multiple times he would be surprised by what she looked like, because lets not go nuts here
2) Ernest Cline surrogate wins the contest by reciting scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail verbatim because it's one of the dozens of films he's watched 40+ times. (Gentlemen, get your boners ready, because the female lead can do the same!) Then Nerd Willy Wonka appears as a pre-programmed hologram or whatever and says that he hopes the winner of the contest is someone who makes real connections with people rather than wasting his life in isolation like he did. That's nice, but that being the case, why the fuck make a contest where the victor wins by proving their encyclopedic knowledge of your favourite pop culture, rather than by doing something noble, or even personal?

So not completely meretricious, and I can see how it might make a fun movie if it's very loosely adapted, but it is pretty shocking that this got outright raves from mainstream publications, not so long ago. Some of the backlash does leave a bad taste in my mouth though, particularly from the AV Club who seemed to lap up and regurgitate every hint of it for the first couple of weeks after the trailer, conspicuously without mentioning that their own review was perhaps the most fawning of all.

Afterwards I read My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, which is no classic but does reference similar pop culture touchstones in a far richer, more evocative and more entertaining fashion while telling a more engaging story with far more likeable and interesting characters.

[Twed]

Bec Hill is currently reading the book and tweeting her hatred of it, along with sections of text, if that's any help?

Really enjoying this