I had not planned on seeing “RP1” anytime soon. Looked ok, but it really wasn’t blowing my skirts up. And then… the vitriol came out about how the movie didn’t adhere to SJW values. How it has a straight white male as a main character, and thus it’s bad and wrong that it sees the world through a straight white male characters eyes. How it doesn’t have enough Queer Representation. How nostalgia and a nerds OCD-like tendency to delve deeply into trivia are BAD.
The kind of people who seem to revel in being wrong are telling the world that this movie is wrong? Ok, I’m in.
It didn’t hurt that I had a ticket to see the movie for one buck. So, I went. And you know what? It was pretty darned good.
Is it a great movie? Naw, probably not. It doesn’t really have a Plot For The Ages, nor any great depth. The visual effects are good, but these days – and especially given that the movie is largely set within a virtual world – that’s not really so groundbreaking. But you know what it is? It’s ENTERTAINING. Hell, it’s a blast. And that is what a movie *should* be. Sure, there are a lot of damn fine movies that aren’t. Steven Spielberg directed “RP1″… and he also directed “Schindler’s List.” “Schindler” is a textbook example of High Quality Cinema. It’s a great movie, and that’s “great” in the “will go down in history” and “culturally important” sense. But what it most definitely is *not* is “a blast.” I’ve seen “Schindler,” and have very little interest in seeing it again. Just as I’ve seen “Citizen Kane,” and now I’m done with it. But I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up watching “RP1″ numerous times in the future. Because it’s fun.
Yes, it’s loaded with pop cultural references. it *bombards* you with them, drowns you in nostalgia. But that’s what the movie *is.* That’s pretty much the point. Getting to watch a Gundam and the Iron Giant taking on Mechagodzilla, or an Orcish cyborg running down a hallway of the Overlook Hotel while said hallway fills with a tsunami of blood gushing from an elevator and making the mistake of going into room 237, or seeing a dead rich guys funeral where his casket is the casing of a photon torpedo, or watching the DeLorean time machine racing the Mach 5 and Adam Wests Batmobile, or going into a workshop and seeing Lone Star’s”Eagle 5” in the back being worked on… that’s what this movie is for. Complaining that this movie is filled with that sort of thing is like going to “Cats”and complaining that there are way too many singing cats.
So, if’n yer in the mood for some entertaining eye candy, “Ready Player One” will do the job. Any movie where the female lead is dancing in zero gravity while wearing a slinky, unrealistically form-fitting dress and she suddenly whips out a US Colonial Marines M41A Pulse Rifle… I’m there.