Woah that was quick... I'm hoping for a collector's edition, perhaps with a statue of the marketing shot of the main character holding up a boombox with Iron Giant behind him.
Here's my movie content review from the Movies sub-forum...
In the year 2045, most people drift through their poverty-stricken lives in ramshackle slum neighborhoods consisting of mobile homes stacked on top of one another, and they seek constant escape from the squalor by immersing themselves in an elaborate virtual reality world known as the OASIS. In this fantasy world, where imagination is the only limit, users interact with one another in the form of avatars, and they can assume any shape, size, sex, or age that they desire. Many of the dedicated gamers spend their time trying to unravel a puzzle orchestrated by the deceased OASIS creator, who, in his final days, hid three keys in the vast expanses of his digital realm for the purpose of rewarding the winner with full ownership of his invention.
When Wade Watts, a teenager played by Tye Sheridan (Mud, X-Men: Apocalypse), unlocks the first challenge of the game and has his avatar name placed on the scoreboard, he instantly becomes the center of attention, and is soon targeted for termination, both online and in reality, by a ruthless mega-corporation intent on securing control of the OASIS for its own greedy purposes. With the help of a close-knit group of loyal online companions and the object of his infatuation, a crafty female user played by Olivia Cooke (Ouija), Watts must race against time to navigate the mazes of the virtual universe by using his exhaustive knowledge of 1980s and 1990s pop culture to decipher mysteries along the way.
Like most 1980s kids, I grew up marveling at the films of Steven Spielberg, but my interest has waned in recent years as the director has focused primarily on “important” historical dramas. Ready Player One, which is based on the gleefully nerdy 2011 novel by Ernest Cline, returns Spielberg to the fun-spirited childlike sense of wonder that graced his early classics, and the experience of watching this filmmaker cut loose with an unapologetic ode to escapism for the sake of escapism is akin to reuniting with an old friend for the first time in decades. This director's signature brand of adventure, which eschews cynicism and forced irony for anything-is-possible idealism, may not translate as well to today's audiences, but I thoroughly enjoyed checking my adult concerns at the door for 140 minutes of unbridled exhilaration at the theater this afternoon.
Many critics are denouncing this movie adaptation of Ready Player One as surface level entertainment that lacks the depth of Cline's book. Although I loved reading the novel, however, I never considered it to be anything more than a nostalgia trip for those of us who spent all of our indoor hours of the 1980s enjoying countless science fiction movies or interactive adventure video games. I will buck the trend of opinions by saying that I actually prefer Spielberg's film because it throws hundreds upon hundreds of familiar pop culture references our way without sinking us in the mire of over-explanation. Whereas Cline's story constantly paused its narrative to point out the origins and plots of old movies, games, and television shows, this movie simply shows people racing in Back to the Future DeLoreans or Akira motorbikes without calling overt attention to the references. As a result, we older people in the audience can laugh at the visual cues from our youth while younger viewers can simply take in the story at hand on its own terms.
If you are intent on zeroing in on each and every reference to a 1980s or 1990s artifact, however, then it's worth noting that most viewers will not be able to pick up on every sighting in one sitting. Since almost every still frame of Ready Player One is peppered with multiple objects from classic films, shows, and games, multiple viewings are required in order to process the sensory overload of Easter eggs. My personal favorite throwback is an extended sequence where Watts and his friends pay a virtual visit to the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. I also love a dance sequence to the tune of New Order's “Blue Monday." Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger both appear in brief cameos, but another 1980s horror icon that I will not reveal in this review is responsible for one of the most hilarious action moments late in the story.
Valuable lessons and insightful themes do surface amid the computer-generated mayhem, of course, and I applaud Ready Player One for reminding us that it's better to have three or four real life friends who love and accept us for who we are than it is to have thousands of social media followers. The premise of society's masses losing themselves in a fake virtual world while the real world atrophies into decay is also quite timely in our current political and social climates. The true joy of this latest Spielberg effort, however, lies in the fact that these story aspects are not forced on us in a heavy-handed way. If you simply want to watch Mechagodzilla and the Iron Giant engage in a mutual beatdown, then you're in the right place. This is not a flawless film, and it runs a good 15 minutes too long, but the euphoria of following new and old characters and sights kept me from looking at my watch.
I had a blast plugging into the universe of Ready Player One, and I even plan to visit it again at the theater for another fix.
Liked the book better, but still really enjoyed the movie. With there would be a 4K/3D pack, but i guess I'll be going with 4K, since we really use the 3D capabilities we have at home.
When you type Ready Player One into the blu-ray.com search box at the top of the page with the search set to 'All Countries', Mexico shows a release date of August 31, 2018 in the dropdown. Do you think that's a general release date, or would it be closer than that?
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Ready Player One (2018) pre-order
Linear Mode
