Ready Player One

Plot: In a dystopian 2045, everyone spends their free time in the online world called Oasis, a cross between Second Life and a MMORPG, massive multiplayer game. The owner of Oasis died, and in his will he created a contest where the winner is the new owner.  Wade aka Parzival (Tye Sheridan), is out there trying to win where he meets cool girl Art3mis aka Samatha (Olivia Cooke). Being exceptionally geeky, Pazival solves the first puzzle followed quickly by Art3mis, and they are the world-wide leaders in the contest.

But once he was in the lead, evil corporate player Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) and his minions of IOI computer gaming-playing employees swoop in to copy Perzival in the game and to hunt him down in the real world. As the struggle moves to the real world, we see the real Wade and Samatha who of course are not as cool as their virtual selves, being weaker and damaged and perhaps desperate.

Wade and Samatha live in an apocalyptic version of Columbus Ohio, where mobile homes and wrecked automobiles are chaotically stacked one on another. Soon we meet their other allies, Helen/Aech (Lena Waithe) and Daito (Win Morisaki) and they are on the run in the real world just as their avatars battle in the virtual one. At the end there is a big battle in the virtual world that ends in a world-ending explosion -- well almost.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This movie was great. It's a Sci-Fi with relationships between the characters. Both the dystopia city and the flashy virtual world are cleverly imaginative. The story is complex, and it helps if one read the book, but I have read the book, and this is a great version of it.

I love the way they visualized the game, the players, the battles, and the dystopian world in Columbus. I loved the stacks of mobile homes and the secret game-playing room Wade had hidden in a pile of wrecked cars.

I liked the interaction between the characters. The flashy way people appear virtually is nothing like the way they are in the real world, just like how people put on (figurative) masks in their social interactions, and inside they are different, sometimes scarred as Art3mis was. It is a critique of the Facebook society

The movie has had some negative reviews, and I want to react to that. It is a young adult movie, so it is a little juvenile, for example, Sorrento's (Ben Mendelsohn) evil IOI goons are cartoony.   Secondly, the book is full of video game references that I did not understand, and the movie is no different. Perhaps this is due to licensing deals, or perhaps these are generic forms of video game tropes that others are more familiar with.

So what does the movie mean? It means that people are more important than money, and the online experience needs to be about people too. 

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Weite

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Written by: Zak Penn based on the novel by Ernest Cline

The Music: Orchestral music that fit the mood by Alan Silvestri, who has done many movie scores. 

The Visuals: I loved both the virtual world and the real world. This is the best part of the movie.

Rating: 3.5 stars: As I left the theater, I gave it 4.0 stars, but I don't think it quite measures up. My highest complement is that I want to see it again. Fun. Fun-to-watch. 

 

More: Here is a nice article on the adaptation of the movie. The movie had a bigger role for the Perzival's posse and especially for Art3mis. In the book it is Wade that infiltrated IOI rather than Art3mis.

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I Kill Giants

Plot: Troubled teen Barbara (Madison Wolfe) prepares each afternoon to battle giants with homemade traps and a battle axe, named Coveleski. At school she gets picked on, in part because she always wears halloween-style rabbit ears. Counselor Mrs Molle (Zoe Saldana) tries to talk to Barbara, but Barbara doesn't want help. Sophia (Sydney Wade), Barbara's sister, tries to look after her at home but Sophia is young herself and has to work to support them. The neighbor girl, Karen (Imogen Poots), sees how eccentric Barbara is, learns about her plans to fight them. At the very end, there is a big twist.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I Kill Giants is always interesting. It is a really strange tale. Early on, it is ambiguous about whether there really are giants coming as in a Harry Potter movie. It is clear Barbara is troubled, but perhaps also clued-in about the coming giant apocalypse. Barbara is so plucky and self-assured that she preservers. Her determination and her pain are her endearing qualities.

I liked the dialog, and I liked Madison's performance. 

Cast: Madison Wolfe, Zoe Saldana, Sydney Wade, Imogen Poots

Directed by: Anders Walter

Written by: Joe Kelly based on his graphic novel

The Visuals: The giants themselves were creepy, and hidden most of the time.  Harbingers, another creature were distractingly low-tech -- like canvas and spray paint. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: A good story

 

More: .Walter adapted the script to remove supernatural creatures from the early part of the film to prolong the tension about whether Barbara was fighting real giants or just ones in her head. link

Even More [MAJOR SPOILER]: In this fascinating interview, Director Walter and a film critic who just lost a parent, talk about the death of a parent, and how/whether to depict that in art.

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