Ready Player One Review

"From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger."

If I had to pick a favorite director, it would probably be Steven Spielberg since he has done so many different types of films (I believe Jurassic Park and Schindler's List came out the same year) and most of them end up being excellent. And even though some of his recent real life films like Lincoln have been really good, many film fans have missed the 70's and 80's Spielberg that gave us classic blockbusters like Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, etc. Well I can tell you that with Ready Player One, that Spielberg is back.

I'll admit that I haven't read the book that this film is based on, but this film rocks in my opinion. The biggest positive I can say about this film is that it captures adventure really well. Many films can have great sci fi and action, but not all of them have that pure adventure feel. Spielberg is the master of adventure films (Raiders Of The Lost Ark is the best one IMO) and manages to bring that feel to this film along with the great sci fi, VFX, and action.

All of the performances in this film are really good. Tye Sheridan as Wade is a likable lead does a good job carrying this film. Olivia Cooke is also very strong as the female lead Sam and she and Wade have really good/believable chemistry on screen. Mark Rylance as Halliday was excellent as expected (Third time working with Spielberg after Bridge Of Spies and BFG) and even though Ben Mendelsohn is playing the cliched "evil corporate overlord", his performance works and you can tell he's having fun with it.

While the trailers looked pretty cool, many people were concerned about how many pop culture references/cameos would be in this film and if it would become Emoji Movie like pandering. Thankfully it's not like that. Most of the cameos and references feel natural (Which makes them more cool and special) other than maybe one or two of them, and some of the iconic characters like Iron Giant (Hope this film gets more people to watch Iron Giant) and King Kong actually do serve a purpose in the story.

The film also has a good moral/commentary about how sometimes people can get too caught up in the virtual world and forget about important/great stuff in the real world. It leads to some funny moments about how literately ANYBODY could be your friend in an online game. And the message doesn't feel forced or like they're beating you over the head. Felt perfectly natural to me.

John Williams was originally going to compose the film, but instead worked on Spielberg's The Post and Alan Silvestri took over. I was kind of disappointed to hear about this since I consider Williams the greatest composer of all time, but man did Silvestri kill it. His score is exciting and very retro. I might even put it on par with his Predator and Avengers themes.

Overall, Ready Player One is a fantastic and fun sci fi film with a great sense of adventure, likable characters, good commentary on our society, and nostalgia that doesn't feel forced. Please go and see it. This film deserves better box office than it's getting.

4/5

What do you think of the film? Comment and let me know. And thanks for reading. :0)

Possible Huge Venom News

Unlike a lot of people, I'm really looking forward to Sony's Venom film. Sure it's not going to be tied to Spider-Man, but that doesn't mean it can't be great. They've got the director of Zombieland and very selective Oscar nominee Tom Hardy on board and are going for a dark, R Rated, sci fi horror/thriller tone. As a fan of the character this gets me very excited and hopeful.

Many fans have been wanting to see what this new version of Venom will look like. We didn't see his design in the teaser, but that's understandable considering the film had just wrapped filming and the FX wouldn't be ready to show that (No. That rumor of Venom only appearing in the last 5 minutes of the film is false. Tom Hardy debunked that on his Instagram account). But some possible good news might be here for those wanting to see more. A photo has leaked online showing that Sony could be partnering to promote Venom with Brisk Ice Tee and we get to see Venom's face on the Dark Cherry Limade bottle.

IF this is legit (At this time neither Sony or Brisk have confirmed it), I love the look of his face. It's the classic Venom we all know and love. I can see that savage put playful look on his face. And if you pay attention, you'll notice that his eyes are the exact same ones from the teaser poster (Which leads me to suspect that this is real). Hopefully this possible leak will inspire Sony to release the next trailer soon.

The other big Venom rumor going around comes from Bleeding Cool who reported yesterday that Woody Harrelson may be playing Carnage in the film. Yes I know they posted it on April Fool's Day, but they've said they no longer do those joke stories and we've heard Harrelson might have a part in this film since December (Although he's the only actor that wasn't in any of the leaked set photos which tells me his role in the film is probably small).

I would love it if this rumor is true. Woody Harrelson is brilliant actor (Just saw Three Billboards last month which he was incredible in) and I can really see him portraying someone truly evil and insane like Cletus Kassidy. And I specifically said Cletus because I don't think we'll see him as Carnage in this first film. I think he'll have a very small part as a normal serial killer and if the film is a hit, he'll become Carnage in Venom 2. I'm okay with this since we know that this is an origin story for Eddie Brock and the Venom suit and they'll be fighting the Life Foundation. You gotta save some stuff for later.

What do you think of this news? Does it get you more excited for the film or does it do nothing for you? Comment and let me know. And thanks for reading. :0)

Unpopular Opinion On Citizen Kane

(Sorry that I didn't have a post yesterday. Very busy Easter Sunday for me. Will get some more up today.)

I always get excited to watch older classic films that I've never seen before and one of the movies I was the most excited to see was the 1941 Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane. Many people consider it to be one of the greatest film ever made if the THE greatest (I believe it was Roger Ebert's favorite film as well). So I watched it last week and once the film ended I thought "Really? This is the greatest masterpiece of all time?"

I was so bored throughout most of the film. I can appreciate older black and white films like The Wizard Of Oz (Though it's not all black and white), Psycho, Rear Window, etc, but they still have to be good well paced films. To me Citizen Kane wasn't. It starts off pretty well with the death of Charles Kane and us learning about his history through the newsreel montage. But after that the movie becomes so painfully slow. I can love a good slow paced film (Modern ones like King's Speech and older ones like Rear Window), but if you're going to do that you have to make sure it's done well and the scenes don't drag out for too long. And for me, a lot of the scenes in Citizen Kane just went on for way too long and could've been easily shorten to improve the pacing while still keeping those scenes effective and important.

Most of the acting isn't great here either aside from Orson Welles. I get it was made in the 40's and acting was different back then compared to now, but I could still tell it wasn't great. This was the first film for many of the actors and it shows.

I will say that it's a brilliantly edited film though. Not just with the newsreel opening, but most of the scene transitions are brilliant, effective, and creative (Especially for 1940's standards).

And with the Rosebud ending, I'll admit that I unfortunately found out about the ending before seeing the film and I probably would've had a different reaction had I went in totally blind. But early spoilers don't effect my overall thoughts on the film. Even if I didn't know that Rosebud was his sled, I still wouldn't have cared because I wasn't into the film or it's characters.

So yeah, that's my unpopular opinion on Citizen Kane. We all have some films that many people love that we just don't get (This and the original Halloween are those films for me). And I'm not trying to say that people are wrong for loving this film while I don't. All film is subjective and I'm very happy this is a classic for the majority of people.

What do you think of the film? Overrated or Flawless? Comment and let me know. And thanks for reading. :0)