I’m a little surprised nobody has mentioned anything about Ready Player One on here especially given the Spartans cameo.

I mean, they show up in the trailer, so we’ve known for ages. Also, as Avateur pointed out once before, Halo as a franchise is no longer as relevant to people around here as it once was.

Given the talk about video game movies, on a plot and story level it was fairly entertaining and well done. Not perfect; I felt like Wade’s home situation could have factored into things a little more, but whatever.

Haven’t seen a Spielberg movie in a while; How does it compare to Schindler’s List?

But the biggest thing that stood out to me was the downright regressive treatment of gender. Holy smokes was this movie troubling. It pretty much brought back the 80s action movie notion of women as trophy and accessory. Halliday completely eliminates any agency or humanity for Kira, who spends her existence literally on a pedestal waiting as a quest reward. She was almost exclusively seen and treated though his male gaze.

Careful, you’ll trigger Kermit with all of your displeasure towards sexism and toxic masculinity... :P

In true 80s fashion, the hero wins the girl just because he did something heroic, despite her initial rebuffs. I was wondering if Samantha had had a horrible disfigurement instead of a minor birthmark, or if she was a quadriplegic or something, Would Wade have been disappointed then?

Spoiler alert. Some of us aren’t complete nerds, so we haven’t read the book.

Yeah the movie was fun, but it was shockingly backwards socially.

Interesting, yeah. Then again, Spielberg is pretty old school, so it’s to be expected.

Given the talk about video game movies, on a plot and story level it was fairly entertaining and well done. Not perfect; I felt like Wade’s home situation could have factored into things a little more, but whatever.

Agreed. I know some people ding it for not being the book. In fact, five friends in the row in front of me stood as the lights raised and one said something like “Ohh! That was awful!” Then they started pointing out all the differences from the book. Well... I didn’t read the book exactly so I wouldn’t get bogged down in comparisons. As a movie not meant to be a tent pole extravaganza... I liked it.

Yeah the movie was fun, but it was shockingly backwards socially.

No. You’re just overreaching and trying to cram plot points that were perfectly fine into your pre-formed conclusion of sexism. In this movie some women are good, some women are bad. Multiple women are shown as intelligent and capable and they too are keys to saving the day. But between your bad examples and Korny’s deliberately insulting snipes at Kermit, I want nothing more to do with this thread.

Good day, sirs! To the both of you.

I’m a little surprised nobody has mentioned anything about Ready Player One on here especially given the Spartans cameo.

Given the talk about video game movies, on a plot and story level it was fairly entertaining and well done. Not perfect; I felt like Wade’s home situation could have factored into things a little more, but whatever.

But the biggest thing that stood out to me was the downright regressive treatment of gender. Holy smokes was this movie troubling. It pretty much brought back the 80s action movie notion of women as trophy and accessory. Halliday completely eliminates any agency or humanity for Kira, who spends her existence literally on a pedestal waiting as a quest reward. She was almost exclusively seen and treated though his male gaze.

In true 80s fashion, the hero wins the girl just because he did something heroic, despite her initial rebuffs. I was wondering if Samantha had had a horrible disfigurement instead of a minor birthmark, or if she was a quadriplegic or something, Would Wade have been disappointed then?

Yeah the movie was fun, but it was shockingly backwards socially.

You weren't playing attention. The Kira subplot was explicitly pointed out as a false narrative. Your eagerness to take some regressive message from the movie is on you, but it makes me sad that you've adopted that filter. Thank goodness this film doesn't hit you over the head with a hamfisted agenda (one that I often do find regressive, because it's turning us all into chauvinists). Yes, a female character was impressed by a male's heroic acts, but that can't happen in fiction? It happens in real life and has happened and will continue to happen as long as human beings exist (men are impressed by the heroic acts of women, too, of course--and so it is in this movie, the female character is shown as more capable than the hero through most of the film). All of the gamer characters are heroic in this film--everyone ends us saving everyone else at one point or another. The fact that it takes a clan is part of the point. I think it's a gross misreading to say Wade claims Samantha at the end. Yes, his having the courage to kiss her is a triumphant moment, but importantly, there is a pause, and then she kisses him--they claim each other . On reflection I think I can understand why certain people might not like the movie--it goes against their religion which holds as sacred the view that what you are is the most important thing about you. A primary message of this movie is that what you are does not matter--what you do matters.

It was a good movie based on a better book. A lot of its appeal is based nostalgia for popular culture, so I'm not sure that it's great art, but it's fun.

It was my and mine wifes 6 year anniversary. We were excited to see RPO as we had listened to the audio book a while ago. We went to dinner and we both ate too much. Having a 4 year old, going to the theatre for an adult movie was rare, so this was especially exciting. Upon entering the theatre, I started to not feel so well. 5 minutes into the movie and they had already covered the first 3rd of the movie. 20 minutes in and I was bolting from the theatre out of fear if committing bushusuru. (Google it.) Returning to my seat led to many moments of flop sweat, motion nausea and “wtf is happening in this movie?”

As they were obtaining the second key and loading the original book into a woodchipper, I said to my wife “we gotta go!” I could tell she was disappointed but understood my situation. In the parking lot she agreed that the movie was a total bastardization of the book, but considering the bar of nastalgia that the book set, we knew the movie could never match the book.

So we came home and watch The Disaster Artist. We really enjoyed it, as we are avid “The Room” fans. It also didn’t hold up to its bound counterpart but it hit the beats to tell the overarching story.

The end.

I have not seen the movie, and I don't want to yuck anyone's yum about the book — as obviously lots of people in this thread enjoyed it — but if that description you just wrote troubled you, Cody, do not read the book.