Ready Player One - The Perfect Nerd Movie... or Is It?

Ready Player One is a movie that has all the elements needed to be an awesome nerd flick.  It’s directed by Steven Spielberg, who brought us classics like E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Much of the movie is set in a virtual video game world.  There are references to a ton of cult classic movies, video games from all eras, and the best sci fi TV shows.  There was even a Gundam, which is from my favorite anime of all time (because, giant robots!).  And that’s just scratching the surface.  I’m positive there were a ton of things that I missed.

I’ve been a self-proclaimed nerd all my life.  I appreciate Star Trek and Star Wars, super heroes and elves, video games and anime.  Given all of this, you would think that Ready Player One is a movie I would be totally crazy about.  But somehow it didn’t appeal to me as much as it should have.  I’ve been trying to identify why that is ever since the film ended.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

First, it felt like it was trying just a little bit too hard to be as nerdy as it possibly could be.  The more obscure and old the reference, the better.  There were a few that I really enjoyed—the Gundam mentioned above, Serenity from “Firefly”, and a couple Star Trek nods.  Aside from those, most of the references were to cult classic horror movies, few of which I have seen or enjoyed.

Second, the virtual world depicted didn’t really appeal to me.  There didn’t seem to be discrete video games, just mash-ups of a whole bunch of them.    Everything was player versus player, a popular mode of game play, but not one that I like in the slightest.  There also didn’t seem to be anything new, as if creators gave up making original games this year and the industry shifted focus exclusively to the development of hardware.

Third, none of the main characters were at all socially awkward.  Their flaws were superficial.  As a nerd myself and knowing others of my ilk, that is not my experience.  There also seems to be a stereotype that gamer girls are Goths that was perpetuated in Ready Player One.  All the truly nerdy characters worked for the big bad guy corporation, so were bad guys by association.  There was one exception, but while he was an important character, I wouldn’t classify him as a main character.

Finally, I wondered how the real world functioned in this version of the near future.  A major premise of the film was that everyone gamed to one degree or another.  Were most jobs automated?  Was child neglect a major societal issue for the entire human race?

That’s not to say that everything was disappointing.  One of the things I was worried about going into this movie was the possibility of a heavy handed political commentary.  I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t one.  Granted, unless it’s heavy handed, I tend to miss it.  The clearest message that got through to me was that big business is evil and the heroes are independent little guys—which could be a political message these days, I suppose.

The quality of the special effects was about par for the current course.  The CGI was visually appealing, but not truly ground breaking.  Maybe the most impressive part of the special effects how smoothly the many different styles of avatar characters interacted with each other.

In summary, I think my problem with the movie is that it felt like it was made by people who are outsiders looking in on a culture that they’ve never truly experienced.  They tell a story that’s based on what they’ve studied academically rather than practically.  All the necessary elements were present, but they were put together haphazardly and without true understanding.  The movie is based on a book which I’ve never read, so I don’t know how much was the fault of the movie makers and how much should be laid at the feet of the author.  What I do know is that I was disappointed by the result.  Maybe someone who doesn’t self-identify as a nerd would enjoy it more.

Pacific Rim: Uprising - A study of sequels

I believe that movie sequels fall into two categories.  There are those that are planned for and part of a longer story—The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers, for example.  Then there are those that are part of an episodic series of adventures of a character or group of characters, such as the James Bond movies and the Marvel cinematic universe. 

The first type has a significant level of consistency with the same creative vision and production throughout the series.  The sequels are planned for and the larger story is often mapped out in advance.  Because of that, if the first movie is good, the sequels tend to be good as well.

The second kind is sometimes hit or miss, depending on if the next story is compelling or not.  The danger with this type of sequel is that the creative teams can be different from one installment to the next so that there are inconsistencies in the way the sequels feel.  Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  One example of a series that has been successful is Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible.  I have enjoyed every film in that run, even though there have been five different directors for the soon-to-be six movies. 

There’s a subset of the second category as well: the sequel that gets made only because of the success of the original.  Whether these will be good is very hard to predict.  Often, the sequel identifies what was especially enjoyed in the first movie and does more of that.  See Cars 2 (an over-the-top Tow Mater) or The Mummy 2 (the same villain and a reprise of certain undead henchmen).  The sequels of this type that do work are ones that decide to tell a different story while being true to the original characters.  One of my favorite sequels of this type is Hellboy 2.

With that introduction, it’s time to talk about Pacific Rim: Uprising.  In my opinion, I believe it’s a sequel in the vein of Hellboy 2.

The first reason for this is that Uprising’s cast has very little overlap from the original film.  There’s also a new director.  But unlike the first three or four Mission: Impossible movies, there was effort put into establishing continuity.  The events of Pacific Rim weren’t overly rehashed, but they did matter; the missing characters weren’t forgotten but were memorialized (mostly); and the new characters don’t really feel forced into place.  Therefore, the overall personality of this movie is different from the first while maintaining the world’s integrity.

The second, and maybe bigger reason, is that it didn’t suffer the insecurities of the Transformers sequels, which relied on a repeat of and increase in the successful devices of the first film.  Where Transformers 2 and 3 played up the characters’ idiosyncrasies and immaturity, Pacific Rim: Uprising kept that to a relative minimum.  The new characters had new quirks, and the returning characters were consistent rather than magnified.  Switching things up kept the humor, if not exactly fresh and original, at least not completely stale.

That’s not to say that the movie didn’t have flaws.  The story was formulaic, many of the characters were stereotypical, and there were plot holes.  This wasn’t a movie to make you think.  It relied heavily on action and special effects—which isn’t always a bad thing.  There weren’t any award-caliber performances.  But it knew it’s audience and it didn’t try to take itself too seriously, which is about the worst sin a movie like this can commit.  And it’s giant robots versus giant monsters!  There’s something about that concept that will draw me to it every time.

I know that I’m in the minority even among movie goers for liking Uprising.  I wonder if some of the disappointment came because of the dissimilarities to the original and the high cast turnover.  While I saw those things as strengths, it isn’t hard to see how some would see them as weaknesses.  For those who missed some of the original characters, there were hints that there’s a possibility at least one could return for future installments, should there be any—and there were some not-so-subtle indications that there could be.

In conclusion, Pacific Rim: Uprising is a sequel that worked because it both built on and differed from the first movie.  I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the implied third film.