Ready Player One, AKA Nerd Fandom: The Movie

[Chessrook44]

Yeah they teased this at Comicon, but the main official trailer just came out and I wanted to share it. Having read the book I can tell you thus:

The plot is more or less a standard "Race to follow the clues to some grand treasure" plot like, say, National Treasure or DaVinci Code. Except instead of being specific forms of history, all the clues are related to 80's Pop Culture. Add in the fact it takes place in a virtual world and you see ALL THE REFERENCES. The book included references to things like Dungeons and Dragons, Gojira, Adventure, Tempest, Wargames, Monty Python, and many many more.

Now, obviously they can't include ALL the references because it would be a rights nightmare (From what I heard, the Iron Giant appearing in the movie is likely replacing a giant robot from a somewhat obscure Japanese animated show), but it'll be interesting to see what they DO manage to get right.

 

[Zhukov]

"RECOGNIZE THIS THING! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"

I 'unno. Maybe it'll suffice for some dumb and mildly inebriated fun.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Personally I think it looks like an awesome dumb movie, probably the most entertaining of all these young adult book adaptations. It's a wet dream for all those idiots who make reaction videos, too, everyone fake crying because they saw a DeLorean or Chun Li or some shit.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah, while the charm is certainly not lost on me, it really looks like a movie designed to have us clap like trained seals. I know when I saw Chucky my gut reaction was 'oh, oh look, I know that'.

Now, I never read the book, but I saw a synopsis, and isn't its message that surrounding yourself with nostalgia and popculture a.k.a. geek culture is very counter-productive to art and being creative? Cause if that's the case, this movie adaptation is the antithesis of that.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

VIDEOGAME CHARACTERS! I KNOW WHAT THAT ISSSSSSS!

Eh, i haven't read the book, and it's Spielberg, so maybe we'll get an entertaining movie, all things considered.

 

[McElroy]

Ernest Cline is a massive 80s nerd, and so he wrote the biggest Nerd Power Fantasy he could come up with. Reading the book, you'll see that a movie version gleamed in the back of his mind for the whole time. However, I wonder if he knew that the movie would have to be dumbed down for the casual audience. Or if he knew that, I wonder if he could guess how much.

I enjoyed the book, but Parzival is an utter Gary Stu in it. Forget about Rey being too good, Parzival happens to be the most capable person in all of Oasis.

2:05 for Tracer and Chun-Li

Now, obviously they can't include ALL the references because it would be a rights nightmare

Fair use.

 

[bluegate]

"Look at us validating the things you love! Now love us in return!"

The movie sounds like dumb fun and I'd go to see it, but all the gratuitous references I can do without.

 

[gigastar]

I heard the book this is based on often goes for pages without any kind of progress due to the sheer number of references it lists.

Why should i be interested in this as a movie?

 

[gigastar]

Now, obviously they can't include ALL the references because it would be a rights nightmare

Fair use.

If lifting characters wholesale from a series or franchise was fair use then theres no way Disney would have such a stranglehold on the character and image of Mickey Mouse.

 

[McElroy]

If lifting characters wholesale from a series or franchise was fair use then theres no way Disney would have such a stranglehold on the character and image of Mickey Mouse.

To put it short: that's trademark law, not copyright.

 

[maninahat]

So its a movie about people living in a garbage future where they dip into a VR world to pass the time as bad-asses? I'm sure I've seen that done a hundred times already. To those who have read it, What makes ready Player One a fresh story?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So it's just an upgraded version of Pixels. An attempt to mass market to the corporate definition of "geek". Gross. The 80s should stay dead.

 

[RaikuFA]

I heard the book this is based on often goes for pages without any kind of progress due to the sheer number of references it lists.

To be fair, most books are like that.

Also we need some love for the 90's like we do for the 80's.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

That looks ridiculous. I'll probably go see it.

 

[McElroy]

So its a movie about people living in a garbage future where they dip into a VR world to pass the time as bad-asses? I'm sure I've seen that done a hundred times already. To those who have read it, What makes ready Player One a fresh story?

The 80s-tinted Easter Egg hunt. Also Oasis itself is still very much a video game with leveling, grinding, quests and rewards, and even microtransactions. But yeah, as I said in my first comment, I doubt the movie is going to stand out.

 

[Kotaro]

A friend recommended the book to me years ago, but I never got around to reading it. After looking into it a bit, it seems like it's basically just Snow Crash with lots of 80's pop culture thrown in. Which, to be honest, sounds pretty fun. But I've heard a lot of fans of the book are not happy with some of the stuff in this newest trailer, so we'll have to see wait to see how the movie turns out, I guess.

 

[McMarbles]

We rightly shit on The Emoji Movie for being pandering garbage, is it somehow better if we're the ones being pandered to?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

We rightly shit on The Emoji Movie for being pandering garbage, is it somehow better if we're the ones being pandered to?

No no, it's merely more familiar. Its still trash.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

If all they do is just reference a bunch of modern mainstream AAA games, it'll be a big waste. If you're really gonna fill something full of references, make them good references.

They could also have done what Erin Dies Alone did and make pseudo-parodies but I guess that would be too advanced for them.

 

[Action Jack]

I read this book, it was... fine? I enjoyed the exploration of life mapped onto an MMO, but there was exhaustive gushing about minute details of various 80s things. My response was either "Yes author, I know, I read that Wikipedia article as well, please continue the plot" or "I've never experienced this thing you're talking about and thus am uninterested, please continue the plot."

However, I do know from watching this trailer that my favorite part of the book hasn't been preserved. The evil corporation employs an army dedicated to finding the Macguffin, and the book says they all look like the default character model on the game's customization screen. So the entire book I imagined them as an army of identical Commander Shepards with short brown hair. Here, though, they're all just wearing motorcycle helmets or something. They really missed their chance to have the antagonist be 10,000 NIcolas Cages.