melasnus

It just didn't connect with me either.

Big fan of the young SS, but this later-day model misses more often than not.

rennervision

Remember when the corporate bad guy had people talking in his ear so he could pretend to be familiar with a bunch of pop culture references and impress that kid? It's ironic because the movie feels like it was made by someone doing that very thing.

Supermallet

I finally bothered to watch this and it was even worse than I feared. First, it did feel like a big budget Family Guy (but devoid of humor). Second, the script was amateurish. I didn’t give a single shit about anyone in the entire film. And the ending sucked. Either delete the Oasis or give everyone communal control over it.

This movie was like a poor man’s The Matrix, without any thought or message beyond “go outside every few days and make some friends”.

And probably the most egregious thing about it was how it perpetuated the idea that fandom is all about remembering tiresome minutiae instead of learning the lessons that the stories we love try to teach us. It’s exactly that mindset that has turned so much of modern day pop culture into a stew of toxic masculinity.

fumanstan

Interesting, I don't think the movie perpetuates that (and if anything does the opposite, given the IOI researchers failures by doing just that), of course I also never even considered learning lessons as a part of fandom at all.

Brian T

To be honest, that's pretty much the (equally superficial and condescending) takeaway from the book.


I think both the book AND the movie could've gone much further down this rabbit hole, since it pretty much is reflective of what a large swath of present-day fandom has been reduced to. I had to assume the author and the filmmakers simply felt the intended YA audience could only process something more easily digested?

Mabuse

Supermarket, you nailed it. These days people accept a YouTube video where someone points out all the Easter eggs in Incredibles 2 as film criticism; and those who author those videos as film experts.

Dan

Hey now. You leave Kroger out of this!

story

I agree, too. Good job, Supermarket!

fumanstan

I don't know, he seems a little Whole Foods-ish to me.

fujishig

It's a generation raised (largely because of deregulation) on media who's sole purpose was to sell products (ie: toys). There's a reason nobody remembers the lessons that He-man or GI Joe taught them (besides how to stop a bloody nose because knowing is half the battle) but everyone remembers the toys.

Mabuse

To be fair, The Shining and War Games weren’t trying to sell a product.

Ash Ketchum

Oh, I dunno, once they repair the broken doors and clean the carpets, the Overlook Hotel would be an awesome place to spend a winter.

Supermallet

Despite having teams of experts, IOI loses because they don’t truly love Halliday or the ‘80s enough to dig deep enough into the minutiae of his life or the era. The entire plot revolves around Wade and Artemis making inscrutable connections between Halliday’s life and pop culture through their deep immersion into his life, while simultaneously somehow missing all the messages of those movies/comics/shows. The film and the book glorify being the kind of pedantic fan that gets upset when something is mildly off in continuity, and its solution to the problem of people being literally addicted to the game world is to just turn it off twice a week.

Noonan

Imagine if Epic tried that with Fortnite

RichC2

I found this highly entertaining, that's about where it begins and ends for me.

fumanstan

Well, I think IOI loses because they just know facts and not the actual reasons and motivations behind things like easter eggs. If there are life lessons and messages to be learned, I think Wade and Artemis see Halliday's real life connection to Kira as something special in the world that helps them understand the need to break from the game and that there's a meaningful existence in reality. That said, I also wasn't looking for or expecting some sort of "solution" to the Oasis since it's existance was never the ultimate evil and problem in the world they live in.

I should say I feel the same. I wasn't looking for or expecting some sort of life lesson or message from the movie, so I guess if someone doesn't like the movie because it didn't teach children to not be addicted to the internet, so be it But what do I know, I work at a video game company

Ash Ketchum

Nickelodeon has a "Worldwide Day of Play" every year where they encourage kids to turn the TV off and leave the house--as if there aren't enough other programming alternatives to keep the little brats glued to their screens. It pisses me off because it invariably falls on a Saturday and I have to do without Power Rangers for a week.

TheDude

Recently saw RPO on Blu. As an '80's kid and a fan of video games, movies, music (especially '80's), and pop culture in general - this movie was amazing. I typically don't like obvious CGI in films, but since the movie was essentially one long video game (for the most part) it worked great here.

The story was interesting as well. This is definitely a movie I will need to revisit several times, to take it all in. Kudos & well-done.

Here's an interesting list of some/most?! of the pop culture references - many of which I missed, since everything went by so fast:

http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/here-...layer-one.html

Nope the above list doesn't include a Krull (1983 sci-fi/fantasy film) reference; there was a scene in RPO when a character used the "Glaive" (the five pointed throwing weapon, featured on the film's poster) to fight someone.

Mabuse

I noticed a thank you in the credits to the estate of Toshiro Mifune. But I’ll be damned if I saw him amidst the muddle.

AGuyNamedMike

Haha, we streamed this a few weeks ago and when I saw that I blurted out "Whoa, the Glaive!" then my wife rolled her eyes at me.

tanman

Even though I disagree I was pretty much understanding you up until that last part. What does masculinity have anything to do with it? In fact I'd argue the opposite that a lot of the culture that was celebrated was geek culture. Almost the opposite of masculinity. In fact the whole movie goes out of it's way in showing that anybody can be brave and make a difference and it doesn't matter what you look like in the real world. You can be a girl playing a big ugly troll thing.

Brack

fujishig

As far as what you look like in the real world, I did find it funny that Art3mis is freaked out about meeting in the real world because she's ashamed of her scar, and it's basically the equivalent of putting glasses on a hot girl and calling her a nerd because she wasn't exactly hideous.

RichC2

I didn't even notice the scar the first time I saw her and was mildly confused by all that.

Dan

I don't 100% agree with this, but this is a decent video essay on some of the issues people have with RPO; both the film and the book. Something worth considering, anyway.

Quote from the end:
There is nothing inherently wrong with loving a piece of pop culture. Especially if it resonates with you on some deeper level, and you can read Ready Player One or watch the movie for it just being awesome too. Sure. But bear in mind that the world of this story is not one in which gamers simply get to play a cool game, but a world in which gamers tell others that they aren't as cool as they are. Women are Xbox achievements. And only straight white guy stuff matters. It's not inclusive if it's a world custom designed for the kind of gamer who tirelessly watches the gate.