Ready Player One

[Greg]

I guess we should all be programmed to love this movie since it deals heavily with our younger years (As I type this I bet there is a book review of this here) and it's directed by Spielberg.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about me. Much like DM's circle of fame, I too have my ties to celebritydom. I currently have two movie subscription packages on the TV which allows me to see a slew of films, which we never do. The films are uniformly unwatchable.

But there is a game I play. And that game is to see if any of the films I have worked on is currently playing any of the stations. And not a night has gone by when I haven't found at least one of my cinematic triumphs airing. I'm so proud of me. Look. It's not a very fun game.

Of particular note to this story is the fact  Last Action Hero has been playing a lot on the STARZ Action channel. I've been catching bits and pieces of it and reminiscing about the sets I built on that show.

But what's important is that Zak Penn wrote the script for Last Action Hero. He also wrote Ready Player One. And to get even a little bit more meta, there is a shoutout to Last Action Hero in Ready Player One.

See? Life is a circle.

Last Action Hero and Ready Player OneScreenwriter Shocked to Find Last Action HeroReference in Ready Player One


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The poster for Last Action Hero.Image: Sony
Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is bursting with so many winks, nods, and references to all areas of pop culture that sometimes, even the people who created those things aren’t aware they’re in the film. Case in point, Ready Player One co-writer Zak Penn.
Penn, best known for writing many of the early X-Men movies, adapted the reference-heavy, self-aware book along with its author, Ernest Cline. Years earlier, he also co-created the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero which shares several meta-elements with Ready Player One. Last Action Hero seems like exactly the kind of film characters in Ready Player Onewould love but Penn didn’t want any references from one movie in the other.


So he was surprised when, during the opening set piece, the race flashes past a theater showing “Jack Slater III,” a film named after the main character in Last Action Hero.
“I never saw it until the first screening,” Penn told io9. “That’s completely Ernie. He slipped it in there without asking me. He got the ILM guys to do it. I never noticed it, Steven didn’t notice it, I had told him not to but when I saw it I was like ‘Man, that’s sweet.’ But I was shocked when I saw the screen. I was like ‘Whoa. Did that say Jack Slater?”
Yes, it did.

Here’s a Last Action Hero reference in Ready Player One.Photo: Warner Bros.

[Drunk Monk]

6 degrees of Greg Lynch.

Sadly imbd ruined any 6 degree games.

[Drunk Monk]

Perfect film for the weekend. So many Easter eggs. Makes us all into gunters watching it.

Sort of the inverse of Matrix. In fact, I wonder if there’s an Easter egg for that because it would be super meta. Saw it with Tara who is home for spring break and she caught all the gamer references I missed. Well, there’s so many Easter eggs you’d have to watch it in slo-mo to catch them all. Splurged on the 3D which was good but not essential. Very spielberg

[Greg]

It's my job to hate, so I do. It's almost an avocation.

But, I didn't hate RP1, it just left me cold. It's a soulless little film. Almost as if some one said to Spielberg let's do one of those effects heavy films you are so good at from twenty years ago. He said okay but never really committed to it. Or something. There was something off about the film.

It starts with what seems like a thirty minute monologue about what the film is about and what the game is about. It just went on forever. At this point audiences probably get the idea of how virtual worlds work, right. But they had to explain it. Every time they moved to another scene they had to stop and explain things.

I would also like to know why Spielberg loves this muted color palette so much? The colors are rich but muted.

There was lots of moralizing and speeches about love and freedom and that got old. I guess Spielberg still wants to make Shia LeBeouff happen since the lead actor seems like his clone. The only person I really liked in the film was TJ Miller who played iRoq. His speeches were out there. Almost as if he were in a different film all together. Maybe he was doing his speeches for Deadpool 2 and forgot he was in RP1. Everyone else was very one dimensional.

It's a kids film I hear you guy, with distinct echoes of The Goonies. Then how do you have a massive explosion that kills so many people? That can't be good for kids. There was a tone problem in this film. 

I especially didn't like the bad guy since he seemed so stupid at many times.


There were two sequences I did like. I especially liked the quest for the second key. I thought that was really inventive and well done. And I liked the massive battle sequence at the end. That's one of those scenes where you probably have to watch it multiple times to get what is going on.

Finally, Easter Eggs. That seems like a lot of work. The theory is that Easter Eggs are fun so let's make a film that's entirely Easter Eggs. More is better! Yeah, no. I did like some. The Queen did see the Jack Slater shout out, but I missed it. I liked that everybody wore pins celebrating different games, etc. But there was just too much. Maybe. It could be I'm old.
 I will watch this film again to try and catch stuff that I missed.

[Drunk Monk]

There was lots of moralizing and speeches about love and freedom and that got old.
...
I guess It could be I'm odl.
 I will watch this film again to try and catch stuff that I missed.

Yep. You old. Or odl. Whatev. You are that.

[Greg]

No bout a doubt it.

[Greg]

I also thought Mark Rylance looked really convincing as a younger version of himself in Dana Carvey's Garth wig. Very believable.

I'm still trying to decide why Rylance is currently so popular. At least to Spielberg.

[Greg]

The rewatch is over. My initial review still stands. Although I will say it now seems more like a Goonies homage with much better special effects.