Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

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Werewolf by Night

Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#126 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:04 pm

Big Ben wrote:What's fascinating to me is that the film continues to invoke that "rule" mentioned in Mystery Space Theater.
”Mystery Space Theater”

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Never Cursed
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#127 Post by Never Cursed » Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:21 am

Premiering today at SXSW; ads for a livestream of the event are all over IMDB

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domino harvey
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#128 Post by domino harvey » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:38 am

Spielberg introduced the, uh, picture last night by saying it's not a film, it's a movie. When did Spielberg turn into one of those film students no one likes?

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Ribs
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#129 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:48 am

He was the original (It also happened to recieve raves)

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domino harvey
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#130 Post by domino harvey » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:50 am

I don't remember him being pretentious, though

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domino harvey
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#131 Post by domino harvey » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:53 am

Also, we have different definitions of "raves," I think-- though Forbes called it a "masterpiece," so there's that

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colinr0380
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#132 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:55 am

I don't know if this is a spoiler or not, so I will tag it but apparently:
SpoilerShow
there is a whole sequence (replacing the detailed playthrough of WarGames from the book?) which involves the characters entering a recreation of The Shining. Which sounds fascinating since we have already experienced Kubrick and Spielberg 'collaborating' on A.I.!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#133 Post by domino harvey » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:58 am

The Variety review details that sequence at-length in their review, for those curious

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Ribs
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#134 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:59 am

I expect he’ll elaborate on this sentiment in more detail on the inevitable lengthy press tour for this, but nuance was probably not necessary to introduce it to a packed audience at SXSW

I do think there’s a bit of an expectations game with reviews as with anything - while much of the buzz around this has been negative a lot of it coming from the actual film journalists and critics has been just sort of playing with the sentiment of this as this nonstop cavalcade of nostalgia references rather than actually making judgments about its quality. It’ll obviously be a few weeks until more get to see it and we find out if it shakes out as like, a good modern Blockbuster film, or like a game-changing all-time masterpiece (I don’t imagine it’ll end up there). But it’s fairly clearly now it’ll be recieved generally warmly and not as a cynical mess that’s totally immoral with its 80s idolization because he’s Steven Spielberg and he’s better than that.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#135 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:10 am

domino harvey wrote:Spielberg introduced the, uh, picture last night by saying it's not a film, it's a movie. When did Spielberg turn into one of those film students no one likes?
Notorious Spielberg hater Jeff Wells’ reaction to that is actually a kind of funny and obscure comparison.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#136 Post by beamish13 » Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:55 am

I'm intrigued by the fact that this will be the first Spielberg film to receive 70mm prints since Hook

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dda1996a
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#137 Post by dda1996a » Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:16 am

Which seems like an oxymoron as this was digitally shot and is CGI heavy. If there was a film that called for digital production it would be this, and I'm a film purist

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#138 Post by Daneurism » Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:52 pm

I'm skeptical of reviews for Spielberg movies since the raves that the Post received. I guess that puts me in the tin foil hat camp, but oh well.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#139 Post by MongooseCmr » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:39 pm

Also the general indifference Bridge of Spies got, his best film in ages

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Ribs
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#140 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:11 pm

MongooseCmr wrote:Also the general indifference Bridge of Spies got, his best film in ages
Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't believe it was met with indifference: it was well-reviewed, Rylance of course has somehow now become a relatively recognizable mainstream actor off of his Oscar, and it made a good amount of money. The Awards Season that year never really circled around it the way it did for Lincoln or the Post, but I think "indifferent" isn't the right word for it. It's definitely been more appreciated recently, though.

(It's his best-ever movie, no qualifications needed (unless it's actually a film, apparently))

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#141 Post by connor » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:23 pm

Ribs wrote:
MongooseCmr wrote:Also the general indifference Bridge of Spies got, his best film in ages
Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't believe it was met with indifference: it was well-reviewed, Rylance of course has somehow now become a relatively recognizable mainstream actor off of his Oscar, and it made a good amount of money. The Awards Season that year never really circled around it the way it did for Lincoln or the Post, but I think "indifferent" isn't the right word for it. It's definitely been more appreciated recently, though.

(It's his best-ever movie, no qualifications needed (unless it's actually a film, apparently))
I thought it suffered from Spielberg's incessant need to bring everything back to a courtroom drama--another hoary ode to the US Constitution which, for the second time in less than two decades, just awarded the highest office in the land to yet another rightwinger who lost the popular vote. He did a much better job of handling that subject matter in LINCOLN, particularly that excellent scene where Lincoln basically admits to his cabinet he's on astoundingly shaky legal grounds.

And as a script, BRIDGE has some structural problems. I would've much preferred to see the film start with Powers's mission and just excise Rylance's initial capture and trial altogether. Start with him already in custody and spend the majority of the film in Berlin. For me, that seemed like such a glaring misstep.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#142 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:33 pm

I know the line of dialogue is "the constitution is what makes us American" but it's technically the Bill of Rights that's being stood up for in both Bridge of Spies and The Post (and Lincoln's *about* how we need to change the constitution with more amendments!) I just think a school of thought of "well, the constitution also allows the President to be a bad person, therefore it cannot and should not be appreciated" to be a little spurious. To me, these three films form a cohesive narrative around the constitution in today's political world - a weird inverse of the similarly loose thematic trilogy of The Terminal / War of the Worlds / Munich with the impact of 9/11 on today's world.

I'm probably relatively alone in that I've basically never had the problems with Spielberg's structures that so many seem to have (mostly concentrated on endings, which I understand even though I don't agree). I think the first part of the story is essential because Donovan's doing it for Rylance (who he befriends) as much as he's doing it for Powers (who is played like an arrogant kid) - and we need the opportunity to see him develop that relationship.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#143 Post by dda1996a » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:51 pm

I understand The Terminal but for me it was always Minority Report that completes the post 9/11 theme.
I really liked Bridge of Spies, even when I had ant particularly excited for it. But yeah as Ribs said, while the Berlin section is the best we need that first part to understand everything. I could have lived without the coda back in the US even though I understand it's reason. I though never really like Spielberg's endings, at least since the 90s.
Still I'm curious about this film's reception. I find it hard to understand how a full length pop culture nostalgia trip could be good, even when put in Spielberg's hands. Just having an entire scene set in the Overlook makes me squirm.

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Ribs
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#144 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:59 pm

Minority Report was filmed before 9/11, so it doesn't really match in the same way as the others (still relevant, for obvious reasons) (and, I'm not saying the Terminal is anywhere near a great film! It just thematically seems in direct conversation with the other films that followed it).

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dda1996a
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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#145 Post by dda1996a » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:07 pm

Anyway as much as I enjoy most of his "serious, political" phase of late, I do miss his earlier blockbuster era. Especially after The BFG utter failure I'm hesitant about this but I still have hope. It's been ages since I was actually excited for a new Spielberg, even if I ended up really enjoying the film

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#146 Post by John Shade » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:10 pm

I think I'm even more alone (maybe along with Armond White) in that I really like most of Spielberg's output, especially the early '00s period. I don't think The Terminal is as bad as some suggest, though it's sappy. I'm fully prepared to have Catch Me if You Can in the top five on my list of biopics, and War of the Worlds is one of his better sci-fi films.

That being said I have soured on his two most recent projects; the BFG was basically a video-game for no one. I can't tell if the praise coming out for Ready Player One is just another recent instance of big commercial films receiving strong critical praise in the United States and then basically becoming instantly forgettable.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#147 Post by Forrest Taft » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:15 pm

Those early reviews are promising, but they tell us nothing about what the movie tries to tell us about Obama. I guess we have to wait till Armond White chimes in. White was, after all, the only one who recongized the fact that the BFG was Obama.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#148 Post by connor » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:19 pm

I will say that Munich looks better to me every year. I don't even mind the gunfire-O-face scene anymore. As far as technique, it's Spielberg firing on all cylinders--the very top of his game. Narratively, it's impeccably constructed.

Politically speaking, it's remarkable in that it pleases no one: the liberal Zionist crowd despises the movie. So do my staunch pro-Palestinian friends. It's a cliche to say that that means it's by definition "sophisticated." But in this case, I'm inclined to agree.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#149 Post by knives » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:54 pm

It does please the pro-Palestinian zionists though.

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Re: Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)

#150 Post by dda1996a » Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:14 pm

I actually think that it is one of the film's weaknesses. Showing the moral ambiguity is great, but trying to be PC and OK with both sides feels like Spielberg trying to have his cake and eat it too

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