Tag: T.J. Miller

Ready Player One

Rated: MReady Player One

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay Written by: Zak Penn and Ernest Cline

Based on the Novel Written by: Ernest Cline

Produced by: Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Spielberg, and Dan Farah

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hannah John-Kamen, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance.

Based on the dystopian world created in the novel written by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One opens in an overpopulated Columbus, Ohio, 2045.  A place where Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) wants to escape every chance he gets because he’s living in the Stacks… with his aunty and loser boyfriend… sleeping on top of the washing machine…

Wade thrives in the OASIS, a virtual universe where he feels alive, where as his avatar, Parzival, he has a chance to win the ultimate prize: control of OASIS.

When James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the brilliant and eccentric creator of OASIS dies, he leaves a parting gift to the world – the final game where any player can win.

Somewhere left in the game are three keys that when found lead to an Easter egg: whomever finds the egg first wins the game and control of OASIS, meaning half a trillion dollars and ultimately control of the world.

A high-stakes game that of course, has a villain: Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) head of operations of Innovative Online Industries, or IOI, and self-proclaimed colleague of everyone’s hero, Halliday.

To win the game is to win everything, and Sorrento plays to win with all the technology and army (AKA the Sixers) money can buy.  He’ll stop at nothing.  And against the young Wade Watts who’s all heart, it’s a David versus Goliath tale, set to an 80s soundtrack while featuring all the pop culture references associated with that time.

Ready Player One takes a new view of a classic ideal with Halliday, the old and awkward mentor that we love and admire; the want to be able to achieve anything as long as we work for it and want it bad enough; that love is there waiting for us if the time is right to take the leap; that with the help of friends (like the High Five) evil can be overcome…

Pretty cheesy stuff, and there’s a lot of those teen moments.  Yet, the struggles are hard-wired into our brain, so I couldn’t help but grin and cheer for the underdogs.

Add that action-adventure aspect with the riddles and search for keys in a computer game brought to life by three years of VFX work to get all the overwhelming detail right, you’ve got an entertaining film.

The highlight for me was the reference to Steven King’s, The Shining.  Most will find a reference to relate to; the 80s has something for everyone, but I found the scare-factor of The Shining and attention to the animation particularly impressive.  When inverted, into the ‘real world’, to laugh at the baddies getting their scare-on, it was brilliant: Stephen King, the ultimate equaliser.  There’s a reason I’m such a fan and hats-off to Spielberg for re-creating The Shining world so well.

But enough with the references ‘cause I’m grinning while I’m writing so I’ll end with: Ready Player One is a classic action adventure that felt unique by showing the past in a new light provoking a feel-good 4-star cheeky grin.

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Deadpool

deadpoolGoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2

Directed by: Tim Miller

Written by: Rhett Reese; Paul Wernick

Based on Deadpool by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T. J Miller, Gina Carano, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapičić

With the writers being the real heroes, crutch shots, butt shots and all manner of side remarks, including the mention of Wolverine’s balls from Down Under – yes, I didn’t mind this self-deprecating humour of Deadpool.

First appearing in the Marvel Comic, ‘The New Mutants (#98)’, the history of Deadpool and the X-Men is quickly glossed over in the film, with Deadpool himself mentioning the producer only forking out for two X-Men characters. See here for an article regarding Deadpool’s origins…

The story-line of Deadpool, the movie, is based on Wade (Ryan Reynolds) becoming Deadpool, and his revenge in being made into a monster, and a very unattractive one at that.

Rather than living the torturous life of a human mutant slave, Deadpool gets his kill-count up in search for Ajax, AKA Francis (Ed Skrein, yep, the actor who played Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones), who took him away from his lady love, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Well, he kinda took himself away but didn’t realise what he was getting himself into.

Don’t expect a PG-type comic movie here. I was a bit surprised by the violence. But the fast-paced action and many bullets to the head, cutting off of hands, broken ankles and general blood spatter helped balance the constant commentary from Deadpool. A little too much, for my taste and as stated by Ajax, certainly ‘a talker’.

A lot of the film was very funny and in addition to creative camera work (Ken Seng as cinematographer), and attention to detail by director, Tim Miller, there’s another dimension to the story: the writers using meta fiction where the character is aware that he’s, well, in a story.

Deadpool talks to the camera and therefore the audience – breaking the ‘Fourth Wall’. And this gives the film an extra layer and point of difference, allowing a different style of humour into the film.

There was a lot going on and I admit that I missed some of the quips. People have said they’ve gone to watch Deadpool a second time and have picked up more of the jokes. Not that I’d go and watch a second time. As I said, this Deadpool guy talks A LOT.

I have to say, yes it was funny and yes I was entertained, but I would have liked a little more darkness from Deadpool, rather than always the ever flippant. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but the original comic character had more depth and I would have liked to have seen a bit more of this darkness translated to the screen. 

 

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