Ready Player One 4K UHD (2018)

[LoSouL]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

And what was the moral of the story, if any? Your world has gone to shit, so just plug in and tune out... except maybe for one day a week to make out with your girlfriend. Wow! So moving. :sarcasm:

Power to the people, do it for the love, ride for your homies, if you're gonna follow someone make sure it's someone who's earned your respect, and make real connections etc.

I didn't get what you got out of it, but yeah, I guess that's one way to see it.

[LoSouL]

Originally Posted by The Duke

I'm not a gamer and wasn't sure I'd like it so I just rented the BD from Netflix disc by mail. I really liked it so bought a UHD without digital code off eBay for a good price, gonna watch it tonight.

Infinity War is on rental embargo until September so I want to buy the UHD but Amazon still doesn't have it in stock the weekend after release date, their stupid feud with Disney. I have a $125 in gift certificates with Amazon so I'd rather buy it there, but if they don't have in stock by next week I'll break down and buy from Walmart.

I didn't bother to check ebay, but after reading your post I went and found a sealed copy with slip on there for $20. Score.

Yeah, Best Buy's gotten a lot of business from me for Disney UHD's, and I usually throw in another UHD that Amazon does carry to get shipping. Ordered Infinity War with Deadpool 2 together. Also got Avengers 1 from Wal-Mart since it was cheapest there and, more importantly, available.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by LoSouL

Power to the people, do it for the love, ride for your homies, if you're gonna follow someone make sure it's someone who's earned your respect, and make real connections etc.

I didn't get what you got out of it, but yeah, I guess that's one way to see it.

The movie only took fleeting moments to make those points... fleeting.

If Spielberg wasn't more interested in his uncanny valley mo-cap effects (like Cameron these days) or cramming references into the film, he could have tied this story about virtual reality into the very real affect social media (gaming and VR fantasy worlds and virtual societies have that aspect too) has on true-to-life-interactions. It destroys interpersonal relationships and the ability of people to work in a society together face-to-face. There are countless scientific studies that have been carried out that show this to be true... and just look at teenagers staring at their phones and texting or at some other social portal... and they could be mere feet away from each other and never make eye contact or talk to each other. Real-world consequences...

Read Sherry Turkle's (from MIT) eye opening book on her research into this very subject... "Alone Together." Chilling.

A missed opportunity to make RP1 relevant to today... that's what good sci fi always does... however, this movie wasn't good sci fi. It was fan service.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Boy, am I glad I rented this for $0.80 from Redbox first. What happened, Spielberg?? It was a mess of a film and about as shallow as a first person shooter. The acting was utterly Styrofoam-grade bland. The script was hackneyed and stale without an ounce of real peril felt... just an orgasmic lights and Atmos objects show... and a cool drinking game for every BTTF reference they threw in. They picked some of the worst actors they could find and said... you're hired! I was actually hoping some of the characters would simply die because I felt nothing for them. I feel really badly for Simon Pegg.


And what was the moral of the story, if any? Your world has gone to shit, so just plug in and tune out... except maybe for one day a week to make out with your girlfriend. Wow! So moving. :sarcasm:


I'm not looking forward to another crack at Indy if this is the best he can do now.

After all these years that I've watched movies, it still amazes me that there are people who get the complete opposite experience from a movie that I have. Movies is a beautiful art for sure.....

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by roguejp

After all these years that I've watched movies, it still amazes me that there are people who get the complete opposite experience from a movie that I have. Movies is a beautiful art for sure.....

It can also depend on your age and how many movies you've watched over your lifetime. You start to appreciate different things in different movies and sometimes the lights and effects and a geewiz soundtrack cannot make up for stale, paint-by-numbers filmmaking. That's why I can't stand modern Marvel or DC superhero movies. Assembly line stuff IMHO.

[Consayblue22]

This played fine for me but one weird thing happened. When I first started up the disc the menu came on and there was sound on it as normal. I then watched the movie but when it ended and I went back to the menu there was picture as usual but no sound. Anyone else had this?

I am in the UK BTW.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

It can also depend on your age and how many movies you've watched over your lifetime. You start to appreciate different things in different movies and sometimes the lights and effects and a geewiz soundtrack cannot make up for stale, paint-by-numbers filmmaking. That's why I can't stand modern Marvel or DC superhero movies. Assembly line stuff IMHO.

Sure thing. Taste, experience and knowledge can and will change how you look at movies. Movies that you liked 30 years ago, could be crap now and vice versa.
But there are still movies coming out that still have that 'movie magic' for me and can take you partially back to that feeling that you had as a kid that you're watching magic. This movie did that for me and cleary not for you. No right or wrong here, just different experiences .

[LoSouL]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The movie only took fleeting moments to make those points... fleeting.

The entire movie conveys those messages, and every piece of it works in tandem to do so.

You can't honestly think the entire story about about players, people, creators and corporations was just a fleeting moment about "power to the people" and "do it for the love" or that the constant friendship story that starts immediately, is always present through the movie, up to the end is fleeting, or that "make real connections" is fleeting when it's girl meets boy, meet irl, don't let love go unrequited etc from the first race, all the way until the closing portion.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by LoSouL

The entire movie conveys those messages, and every piece of it works in tandem to do so.

You can't honestly think the entire story about about players, people, creators and corporations was just a fleeting moment about "power to the people" and "do it for the love" or that the constant friendship story that starts immediately, is always present through the movie, up to the end is fleeting, or that "make real connections" is fleeting when it's girl meets boy, meet irl, don't let love go unrequited etc from the first race, all the way until the closing portion.

You can think so if you want. I feel the messaging was handled poorly and was mostly about the GeeWiz factor besides just throwing in every film or game reference they could come up with within legal limits. The characters were cardboard and blandly acted. There was no sense of danger either. When someone did die, it was like oh well... got over that quick.



It made the film ring hollow to me.


Willy Wonka from the 70's was sharper edged using satire and the quick wit of Gene Wilder and this is basically the same story, just spiffied up for the gaming community.

[LoSouL]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

If Spielberg wasn't more interested in his uncanny valley mo-cap effects (like Cameron these days) or cramming references into the film, he could have tied this story about virtual reality into the very real affect social media (gaming and VR fantasy worlds and virtual societies have that aspect too) has on true-to-life-interactions. It destroys interpersonal relationships and the ability of people to work in a society together face-to-face. There are countless scientific studies that have been carried out that show this to be true... and just look at teenagers staring at their phones and texting or at some other social portal... and they could be mere feet away from each other and never make eye contact or talk to each other. Real-world consequences.

This would be like expecting The Goonies to be serious biz commentary on gentrification and redevelopment. One that can always be argued for and against.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Consayblue22

This played fine for me but one weird thing happened. When I first started up the disc the menu came on and there was sound on it as normal. I then watched the movie but when it ended and I went back to the menu there was picture as usual but no sound. Anyone else had this?

I am in the UK BTW.

Warners discs tend to do this, it's fine. Also happens if you leave the menu playing for too long.

[Consayblue22]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Warners discs tend to do this, it's fine. Also happens if you leave the menu playing for too long.

Ah okay, thanks, was just wondering if I possibly needed to get a replacement, glad I don’t have to.

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Boy, am I glad I rented this for $0.80 from Redbox first. What happened, Spielberg?? It was a mess of a film and about as shallow as a first person shooter. The acting was utterly Styrofoam-grade bland. The script was hackneyed and stale without an ounce of real peril felt... just an orgasmic lights and Atmos objects show... and a cool drinking game for every BTTF reference they threw in. They picked some of the worst actors they could find and said... you're hired! I was actually hoping some of the characters would simply die because I felt nothing for them. I feel really badly for Simon Pegg.

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by RodChester

WB has always been bad about defaulting to an inferior audio track. With bluray their discs often defaulted to the lossy track. And now it seems their 4K discs are defaulting to the non Atmos tracks. It’s a weird decision that has never made sense to me.

Originally Posted by BitRate

It makes perfect sense, because the average consumer of physical media doesn't have a premium audio setup.

I'm not so sure of that "prefect sense". I rented the BD from Netflix by mail, it was marked "rental" and made me skip through all the previews, but you know what? The default audio was Atmos. I liked it more than I expected and bought the UHD and watched it last night, luckily Warner has taught me to check the audio setting before starting the movie, because on the UHD the TrueHD is the default audio. So I have to agree with RodChester, WB's weird decision on the audio settings for UHDs makes zero sense to me.

And, BTW the review here called the UHD a "modest" upgrade to the BD, but having watched both recently for me the UHD is a modest upgrade for the live actions scenes, but the HDR makes the Oasis scenes much more vivid and stunning. And that's the HDR10, my TV doesn't support DV.

[fighthefutureofhd]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

You can think so if you want. I feel the messaging was handled poorly and was mostly about the GeeWiz factor besides just throwing in every film or game reference they could come up with within legal limits. The characters were cardboard and blandly acted. There was no sense of danger either. When someone did die, it was like oh well... got over that quick.



It made the film ring hollow to me.


Willy Wonka from the 70's was sharper edged using satire and the quick wit of Gene Wilder and this is basically the same story, just spiffied up for the gaming community.

Blame the source material not Spielberg. The book this movie is based on is full of 80s references and what not. That's kind of the point of the story. The Oasis is pretty much just one giant mind. Specifically, Halliday's mind. And he grew up in that era and it's what shaped him into the man he became.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by The Duke

I'm not so sure of that "prefect sense". I rented the BD from Netflix by mail, it was marked "rental" and made me skip through all the previews, but you know what? The default audio was Atmos. I liked it more than I expected and bought the UHD and watched it last night, luckily Warner has taught me to check the audio setting before starting the movie, because on the UHD the TrueHD is the default audio. So I have to agree with RodChester, WB's weird decision on the audio settings for UHDs makes zero sense to me.

And, BTW the review here called the UHD a "modest" upgrade to the BD, but having watched both recently for me the UHD is a modest upgrade for the live actions scenes, but the HDR makes the Oasis scenes much more vivid and stunning. And that's the HDR10, my TV doesn't support DV.

The blu-ray defaulting to dolby digital made ZERO sense. It was always maddening that Warner did this. Even if you are watching through the worst possible quality TV speakers/soundbar, the 7.1 or 5.1 gets down-mixed anyway... and that downmix has to happen whether it is a True HD track or an older Dolby digital track. There is no benefit to playing the lossy track even through lousy TV speakers. Really I'm not sure there is any reason for the lossy track to be on the disc at all, let alone for it to be the default track. Esp if they are both surround tracks, it is one thing to throw in an alternate stereo or mono mix or something (but even then...unless space is an issue why would that ever be lossy?).

Now I'm not sure about Atmos track, I would assume very few people have overhead speakers now or ever will. Still, in principal wouldn't it just be downmixed? Maybe there are legitimate concerns over how this downmixing is handled by today's equipment? On the surface it doesn't seem as crazy as going with a lossy track, but discs should probably just default to the best track by a rule.

[Geoff D]

I know I'm late to the party with this flick (in every respect) but I've already posted one belated review tonight, might as well give you all another one that you never asked for!

Spielberg finally returned to using anamorphic glass and I can understand why, given that the film is so heavily steeped in the '80s and Panavision was the bomb, yo. I didn't look up any of the film's specs or participants before viewing (as I said, late to the party) but it was obvious from the diffuse look to the live action scenes that Janusz Kaminski's services had been retained as director of photography, the images having his trademark halation around highlights, and it was doubly obvious that Alan Silvestri scored it rather than Jazzy Johnny.

As for what the actual UHD makes of this? It's damned good. The live action stuff does have that innate softness but the Panavision glass - as opposed to the Hawks used on Mr The Pool 2 - still carries with it a genuine amount of detail even in this 2K finish with a fine dusting of grain, and I loved how the grain noticeably got a bit livelier when they got into The Shining. I also dug the bit when they're pretending to hold up Ben Mendelsohn (who has new teeth, he sounds different) in his VR suite and how they looked all smooth-faced and DNR'ed to shit ONLY when they were in that simulation. It's simultaneously funny and sad that it can be used purely for effect as seen here, while other stuff has been smoothed over as badly as that in all seriousness, just because some asshat wants to get rid of the grain.

And yet although that real world stuff isn't supposed to look all glossy and amazing the HDR grade still extracts a nice amount of extra highlight detail without violating the underlying intent, whereas the SDR disc blows out skies, backlighting etc a lot earlier. I didn't find the UHD to be darker in terms of APL either. But the stuff in the Oasis? Sweet llama of the Bahamas, I couldn't stop myself from gawping at it because it's so gorgeous. Now, it still isn't the most HDRy piece of HDR you're ever gonna see as the speculars don't blast off of the screen but it adds a silky sheen of depth and dimensionality to the CG images that knocked me for six. The colour is excellent too, the SDR is still plenty vivid but it looks a bit one-note whereas the UHD has more breadth and intensity.

It's the most realistic unreality I think I've ever seen, if that makes sense, and the extra lick of detail on the UHD vs the regular Blu also helps to make the copious CG stuff look that bit betterer, from the wide-eyed close-ups to the sprawling vistas - they all retain more detail than on the BD and the compression gets a bit hairy on the BD as well. Not that it's outwardly bad bad, it just can't resolve what the UHD is resolving in the busiest moments like when everything's swirling about on the dance floor.

Yes, the black levels have indeed been thickened up on the UHD which gives it that extra touch of contrast and richness and loses a little bit of shadow information against the SDR BD. BUT, unlike certain other movies I could mention, it doesn't simply clip the shit out of the black, it's been done in a much less heavy-handed way and has still got a really nice roll off into the shadows that doesn't have horribly hard posterised edges. Do it like that and I don't mind it a jot...

So, while this disc might seem like a sequence of small HDR victories it all adds up to an alluring UHD package with beautifully film-like, um, film and incredibly immersive CG.

And the film itself? I enjoyed the ever-loving heck out of it, and not just for all the pop culture stuff but the effects, the story, the music, everything. I still can't believe how good the animation is, how nuanced the facial expressions are, and even the eyes - so long the location of the uncanny valley - are amazingly well done as I can see the performance behind the eyes. The movie is a piece of cinematic bubblegum for sure, the taste not destined to linger for too long, but while you're chewing it it's a feast for the senses. I'm glad to see that this Steven Spielberg never truly departed us for more serious waters, he's still a master of such effervescent Hollywood confections.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

And the film itself? I enjoyed the ever-loving heck out of it, and not just for all the pop culture stuff but the effects, the story, the music, everything. I still can't believe how good the animation is, how nuanced the facial expressions are, and even the eyes - so long the location of the uncanny valley - are amazingly well done as I can see the performance behind the eyes. The movie is a piece of cinematic bubblegum for sure, the taste not destined to linger for too long, but while you're chewing it it's a feast for the senses. I'm glad to see that this Steven Spielberg never truly departed us for more serious waters, he's still a master of such effervescent Hollywood confections.

Feast for the senses is dead-on correct. I wish the narrative had more strength, but it's undeniably an enjoyable and very pretty romp. I agree the UHD looks stunning.

[rwc]

Originally Posted by smeemi

I bought the FNAC VHS packaging edition which should come tomorrow/wednesday .

Question... What’s the IMAX poster (the side apparently rendered in 3D) like? Do you view it with the included anaglyph glasses to see the 3D effect?

[Vangeli]

So which disc should I keep in the four disc modded Steelbook? Bonus disc is okay but DVD has crystal key disc art and completes the set