Rotten tomatoes has some pretty great quotes from critics who were there. Cautiously optimistic here as well.
In many cases it’s also the result of toxic fandom. You see it alot with things that have been around a long time - Star Wars, World of Warcraft, punk rock, etc.
Over time certain people will decide how they think the things they love should be, and if the actual thing diverges from their desires they’d rather it die than be different from what they want.
So they go on forums and try to convince everyone who is perfectly happy with the state of affairs that it’s actual terrible and that the creator(s) have killed it and everyone should quit.
It sucks.
I think we can all agree, given the source material, Spielberg was probably one of the best choices, and it sounds like (being cautiously optomistic) that he made this good.
Will have to wait to see it, but very happy this isn’t an an instant 23% rotten tomatoes score. It at least has a chance of being fun.
I enjoyed this book. It was fun.
Same here. Then I listened to the audio book with my teenage kids who all enjoyed the ride despite not being born back then (but they obviously know some of the culture pop culture of the time through me and what we watched/played together).
We all looking forward to the movie now. So those early reviews were good news.
I agree. Unfortunately, I also have to agree with Telefrog that Armada was crap.
If they use music like in this latest trailer, with a riff on a song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the wildness of the Oasis and then Take On Me by A-Ha for actually jumping into the Oasis, this will be magic.
I was very negative of this movie until I heard the Willy Wonka callback in the trailer. I’m easily swayed.
This is on the book, but I think it recontextualizes things well
This isn’t directed at you, but as a father of a daughter I really hate the ‘for girls’ thing. Where if it’s for girls it has to be all pink and ponies and glitter. How girls can’t like cars or computers.
I also hate the ‘for boys’ stereotype stuff too, for the record.
I’m the father of a boy and I hate that “for boys” and “for girls” stuff just as much as you do.
I’m not a big fan of it either but damn my two daughters sure love pink and glittery shit. Can’t get enough of it. Luckily they’re both showing signs of being gamers also or I’d go nuts.
My daughter loves baby dolls, the Fisher Price Little Peoples, shoes, clothing accesories, and any and all electronic devices. If I’m on my SNES classic, she insists on holding a controller. If I’m on the computer, she wants to hit the keys.
In fact I had to hide the controllers for the SNES and Wii, because she would always pull them out. As in she would open the box, then take them out.
She’s 13 months
She already wants to pick out her clothes :P
Our almost-4yo still loves to hit the touchpad on my laptop so it lights up. And loves getting on my wife’s PC or tablet to type stuff too. Soon yours will be accidentally messaging friends, good stuff!
Soon? Ha, how about yesterday!
Saw it with my 15-year-old tonight. He utterly loved it. I was entertained and don’t regret going, but it won’t go down as a favorite movie of all time, or into my top 5 Spielbergs or anything. The visuals are just amazing. The story is as stupid as the original (the entire world going 80’s trivia-insane), but most of the changes seem driven by it being a movie and not a book.
As a Star Trek fan, there was one scene that put an enormous smile on my face.
I’m looking forward to it being released on digital, so that we can freeze-frame all the dozens of characters we didn’t spot in the crowd scenes.
A fun, predictable special effects extravaganza that’s not believable, but not Transformers-stupid either.
And this is why a movie was almost guaranteed to work better than the book - it can show you references in the background without spelling out every single one like Cline does.
I’ve never read the book, so the movie’s world of obsessing over 80s pop-culture was jarring for someone who isn’t a fan of the 80s (70s 4ever). Congrats on creating a real dystopic world there.
Movie was OK, it certainly felt like a Spielberg film and in 2018 that’s not entirely complimentary. I remember loving his action films, but Spielberg’s time has gone, the art has moved past his skills or style as a director. The villain was ridiculously over-the-top, Halladay was too much of a caricature of a socially-awkward nerd and Wade playing off of that by having the amazing courage to actually kiss a girl and thus not live the same life of mistakes was groans inducing (he broke the mold, nerdlings, you can do the same!!!).
Got in the car to go home and Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There To Remind Me” was playing. I laughed. Got home and Youtube’d Dee Snider and the boys for my 10yo son and his response was, “What the heck?”
After you can then pull up an episode of The Apprentice and see Dee Snider with the President!! have him wrap his head around that one!
In anticipation of the movie, I’m reading the book first - I missed that whole wagon years ago. Enjoying it so far as a light-hearted fiction.
The book is fine if you enjoy it as an action romp and not literature.
One interesting thing in my showing that I’d be curious to see if it was replicated elsewhere: There are a half-dozen or so obvious laugh-lines/jokes in the movie. In my release-day, super-excited crowd, almost none of them elicited even a chuckle.
The villain being over-the-top was perfect for what’s essentially a modern 80’s movie set in the future. Paul Gleason could have played that part wonderfully if he was still alive. I’m pretty certain the fact that the movie feels dated is completely intentional – it’s an 80’s film with modern effects and pacing.
Halliday’s two-dimensionality (and ditto the rest of the characters) was pretty much carried forward straight from the book. The book’s a fun read, but it’s populated by archetypes, not people.