I’m confidant that I will enjoy the movie for what it is, but the question is if I want to wait until this is available at my local RedBox, or is this worth seeing in the theaters?
This is a heavy CGI fest with tons of Easter egg type characters. It would be more impressive on a big screen. Its not imperative but it does add to the experience.
Depends on if you’re the sort of person that only sees one or two movies in a theater a year, or goes all the time. It’s not the only movie I planned on seeing this year. We did see it in 3D, though. Sure, 3D can be a needless expense, especially when the 3D is converted afterwards, but here, we all thought it was pretty cool. (Also, the 2D showings were sold out.)
I liked the movie, but while it got the “let me show off my toys and arcane knowledge” part of geekness, it wasn’t quite as successful at sharing the camaraderie of a nerd tribe. There’s a portion in the book where the kids have to recite Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All of it. It’s treated as a fun palate cleanser between the more difficult tasks in the game, and our heroes relish such a hilarious way to recharge their batteries. This probably would have been a nails-on-chalkboard hard stop if they had adapted even a portion of that to this movie. I just wish our heroes had done a little more team building instead of simply hanging out with their war buddies.
At the very least, I wish he had said, “1, 2, 5!” when he threw the Holy Hand Grenade!
I’m listening to the audiobook during my commute and am around chapter 7 now. It’s ok so far, enough to keep my interest. I’m curious to see how it all goes down so I’ll keep at it. Seems like it could have really used a better editor though. I’ve already heard about how the Oasis is free so they make their money via teleportation charges about 4 or 5 separate times now. And I wince every time I hear SUXXORS and other painfully annoying crap.
I honestly have no idea how much of that annoyance is from the text, and how much is from hearing Wil Wheaton deliver those lines.
That’s a great point - especially the French pronunciation of “poser” which is driving me nuts.
None of you are nearly l337 h4XX0rz enough.
It’s a phrase that, when read in context of who these kids are, didn’t bother me.
Hearing it spoken aloud be an adult? Yeah that would stick out in a super annoying way.
You need to be at least U83/2 l337 h4XX0rz status.
I don’t listen to a ton of audiobooks, but I thought Wil did a good job on this. It’s double hilarious because the book actually name checks Wil himself, so when he reads it he name checks himself. He reads it completely straight.
anyone caught the Excalibur (John Boorman movie) reference? I was pleasantly surprised
I just hit that point on the way into work this morning and agree. But they really need to fix the audiobook version of the high score table (that was fascinating listening, hearing a bunch of numbers read in succession that added pretty much nothing to the experience) and this ridiculous text-only conversation that Wheaton reads for 10 minutes that consists mainly of crap like, “Artemis: Totally. Parzival: Yeah, right. Artemis: Your turn, buttwipe. Parzival: Oh yeah. Artemis: etc, etc, etc.”
Somewhat mild, ranty book spoilers:
The book is so damn uneven. The whole first key hunt was pretty good, including the post-key fallout.
But then he goes to an f’ing dance for what’s-his-name’s birthday and holy balls that was some bad writing.
The whole Artemis infatuation thread, then the overly long boring description of every aspect of the dance nearly forced me to delete it.
And now a chapter or so later, he’s going into a point-by-point description of EVERY aspect of his life in his new apartment instead of moving onto the hunt for the 2nd key. I seriously don’t need to know exactly how every single piece of technology works, or be told for the 100th time that he gets everything he needs delivered to his door after ordering online, or even how masturbation was responsible for every great advance in society. Can we just stick to the actual story please?
No, that’s not what Ernest Cline cares about.
Total garbage. No offense to anyone that liked it.
The birth of a child is an amazing thing. Life begins! It is a spectacle. This movie is more like the afterbirth. Just wearying and tedious and WHY are you there?
I suffered up until the point when “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (whatever that song is called) started playing. Instantly realized, “Shucks. Freaking fantastic sentiment.” Walked out of the theater and went home to do some landscaping. First time in years I’ve been so overcome by annoyance and ennui that I exited the premises mid-showing.
I saw it the other day and really enjoyed it. It was cool to see different characters from various films together. Is it only Marvel and Nintendo that do these kind of character mash-ups? (or whatever they’re called).
I’m not expecting it to be a great movie but am looking forward to checking it out on Netflix or wherever it ends up. Mainly to see how they represent the key/gates I think.
Hal, no offense and I might be wrong, but you don’t seem to be too keen on the modern crop of summer blockbuster fare. Why do you subject yourself to them then?
This has definitely not been a year where I’ve seen much that I’ve liked, but I’ve only seen Annihilation and then this. As to why, it was after dark and I was bug-bombing my place. I don’t watch previews anymore, so mostly my fault really.
Still, total stinker to me. Maybe last year was the year I liked everything and this year will be the year I don’t?
In good news, the closest theater now has almost entirely reservation-only, reclining seats, plus a cafe with hot foods which are actually not a bad price. Guess I will be subjecting myself more. [-:|
My kid and I only go to the reservation only with recliner theaters anymore. The closest one is around 30 miles away and there are a dozen closer without the recliners…but we got spoiled!