Ready Player One

[Sirona]

Just watched "Ready Player One", a movie about a male teenage nerd who saves the world by endless references to 1970s to 1990s pop culture, namely 1980's videogames. At school, we once had a homework of "story-writing", and one of the boys in my class crammed as many children's TV characters such as He-Man into his homework, thinking it would make a story when of course it didn't. The problem is, we were 12 at that time. I think it's a little worrysome when an adult packs such stuff into an entire freaking novel and gets away with it.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I was at the theater with my daughter last Sunday and we were torn between A Quiet Place and Ready Player One. Based on your assessment, it looks like we made the right choice (except the ending of the former irritated me to no end).

 

[ADigitalArtist]

The book is even worse, somehow.

 

[Sirona]

I think you can't really blame the filmmakers, as most successful movies these days are peppered with references to earlier works or self-referential, and Ready Player One essentially is References: The Movie. BTW, I like geek movies such as "War Games" or "Hackers", but that was indeed too much. Maybe it should make us think about the identities we adopt on the internet such as our avatars, but maybe I am interpreting too much in what basically is very dumb fun. It starts out with an apocalyptic description of real life only to seduce with the perfect shiny 3D virtual world. Sounds like material what might have become a good dystopian film, but that would have meant taking a risk, and they didn't do that.

 

[Woberts]

At school, we once had a homework of "story-writing", and one of the boys in my class crammed as many children's TV characters such as He-Man into his homework, thinking it would make a story when of course it didn't.

The references aren't the entire plot, they're just a vehicle to help drive it forward.

 

[Sirona]

There is very little original thought in Ready Player One. The only plot twist is that the protagonist’s best online friend, who has a male avatar, is in fact not a white guy but a black woman. In the book it is further stated that she’s obese and a lesbian. If you want to see it benevolently, Ready Player One it’s like fanfiction which can’t stand on its own but is always dependent on the work it refers to. There are even fanfiction crossovers in which characters from different fandoms are meddled together. The only difference between Ready Player One and the example I gave about my friend’s homework is that RPO is not so much about characters but it is a piece of fanfiction about an era.

 

[Dr. Mahlek]

I’ve not read the book, but the movie was so bland. As Sirona hinted at, it’s like something a 12 year old nerd would write at school.

Not impressed, but graphically it wasn’t bad.

1.5/5 on my incredibly subjective scoring system. Would not watch again. Will not read the book.