Double Feature: John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) & Ready Player One (2018)

The next double feature are two rentals that I saw over the holidays and two movies that I’ve been anticipating to watch for a while. The first is the sequel of John Wick, John Wick: Chapter 2 and the next is one that I’m curious about the execution of the movie especially since I wasn’t a huge fan of the book, Ready Player One.

Let’s check it out!

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Director: Chad Stahelski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, Claudia Gerini, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Tobias Segal

After returning to the criminal underworld to repay a debt, John Wick discovers that a large bounty has been put on his life.-IMDB

Call me a late comer to the John Wick movies so far. I only saw John Wick (review) some time in 2018 and loved it to absolute bits. Suffice to say when I had the chance to get a cheap rental for its sequel, it was my first choice. John Wick is a fantastic character and the second film dives a deeper story in the aftermath of his being caught into something deeper except everyone seems to forget to not mess with him because it never turns out good. There is something so raw and no BS when it comes to John Wick that I love. The characters, the color palette and the flawless action packed scenes are all so well thought-out. Not to mention, Keanu Reeves has definitely found the iconic character for himself with John Wick and he can make it come alive with the least amount of words needed and just his still glances and reactions (and sometimes lack of) are worth a thousand words. The film itself has so much character and its made up by choosing the right soundtrack and the same group of characters and the no nonsense plot line which has enough twists to make it all intriguing.

There really aren’t enough words to describe this adrenaline rush that is John Wick and the sequel does a great job on par with its first film. Suffice to say that I’m looking forward to the third film.

Ready Player One (2018)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki

When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune. – IMDB

If you haven’t listened to our Game Warp book discussion of Ready Player One, you can find it HERE.

In a nutshell on how I felt about Ready Player One the book was that there were too many huge 80s reference bits that just took up entire parts. It felt too much for its purpose and pulled away from the actual treasure hunting adventure thriller but put too much focus on the love of the 80s. There is nothing wrong with loving the 80s but when entire segments of the book is narrating entire movie sequences or game sequences, its just a bit much. In that sense, the book felt like it fell into fanboy territory and lost the actual story itself.

Ready Player One does execute better as a movie. It still has a lot of 80s references but takes out all the long sequences of re-enacting bits and pieces of movies and games and such, leaving in more the story of the treasure hunt and following our protagonist as he finds the first key and then meets the girl and all that stuff. There is no doubt that the visuals here are outstanding as are how everything is framed and the fantasy element of the OASIS and how certain bits have been changed to match up to say what they can get licensing for and what can work in the realm of films to escape the book world. With Stephen Spielberg at the helm, this movie does work better than the book in my opinion. However, the movie suffers from length even if it took out the long  boring bits in the book itself. In turn though, the characters themselves lost a bit of the character development but the movie gained a bit more of the hunt. I liked Ready Player One alright but is it Steven Spielberg’s best work, no, is it a good adaptation, its okay and as for the cast itself, they were passable as well. Its a movie that works for one watch but I’m fairly indifferent to it that I wouldn’t go back to watch this again, simply because there are better choices and as I sit to think about it more, its starting to fade away making it also a fairly forgettable experience.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen these two films? Thoughts?

 

Game Warp Special: Ready Player One – Book Discussion

A little change of pace over at Game Warp Podcast this week. Paired with the release of Ready Player One, we review and discuss the source material, the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. At the same time, we talk about the 80s references and execution while also looking at what we saw in the trailers and our expectations from the movie.

This is pretty much a podcast show with only images here and there. If you prefer the audio version, you can find it HERE.

Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoyed!
What are your thoughts on the book Ready Player One?

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

As I try super hard to stay on track with my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, I find myself finally jumping into the virtual world created in Ready Player One, especially since San Diego Comiccon brought us a trailer and I’m super excited to see that film. Both myself and my darling Game Warp co-host was and is reading it, however, we’re starting to think about expanding to game-related content once in a while so we may be doing a quick review discussion of Ready Player One when he has wrapped it up as well. I’ll share it here if and when it happens.

Ready Player One
By: Ernest Cline

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them. … – Goodreads 

Ready Player One has been praised by the masses. Almost everyone who reads it seems to love it. Ready Player One has a captivating if not depressing dystopian future set in 2044. It has great adventure and takes us to a world where everyone finds more joy in the virtual reality world of OASIS and what makes it more appealing is that for those with the right knowledge, they can possibly find a treasure. Treasure hunts, virtual reality mixed in with video games and an 80s love, Ready Player One has a great looking formula. The idea and concept of it all was truly great and while I really wanted to love it, I unfortunately only can say that I wished its execution had been better.

Ready Player One’s strength is its treasure hunt adventure. It let us be exposed to the wonderfully detailed OASIS and all that it could do. Being a video game lover, who doesn’t want to live in one, right? Solving riddles and figuring out puzzles and the whole process was fun except everything from the hunt to our characters and their development and the immersion was lost in its excessive desire to refer and elaborate on all the 80s culture. Whenever I hit a multi-page description (or it felt that way) of a certain 80s culture, I would just have this desire to skip over because it makes the treasure hunt and our main character’s quest lose its value and appeal. Also because of these descriptions, it would ruin the mystery of how a certain key quest would be achieved, turning what could be an exciting segment to something that only had two lines. While this might sound confusing, what I mean is that the main action doesn’t get as much description as the tangent stuff. The third act does pull itself out and focuses on the treasure hunt primarily however it seems to have lost the beginning excitement.

In terms of the characters, the characters are really quite good. Our main character is Wade, also called Percival. And he ends up befriending more of the society as they fall in place and also follow his suit and finds the first key. These characters themselves also are quite fun. One of the best parts is the awareness that these are all real people but in a fake shell and for the most part, we do forget about this virtual reality aspect. We see the events through Percival and because of that, it leaves some unknown factors for us to discover such as learning about his friends and competitors. Why do I not say enemy because the enemy is the evil corporation and the leader of the team they call Sixers. Their leader is an evil man and we soon see that he is quite the ruthless and possibly heartless villain. Pity is that their run-in isn’t frequent enough to make him a valuable enemy. He’s always just the looming danger but not enough the present one and we soon feel that this book could only end in one way and the dangerous feeling soon deteriorates as the treasure seems to be closer which probably shouldn’t be the case.

Overall, Ready Player One is a great concept with an okay execution. The descriptions are not focused on the right things and falls too much into a fan-boy chat about the 80s instead of focusing on building the story. No matter how central the 80s are as a foundation, it won’t be through reading 300+ pages that someone with not enough knowledge would get it. It would be through seeing how these games and movies play out that will boost the interest instead. While the book doesn’t appeal to me as much as the general public, I however still see it having a high possibility of getting a great movie execution because with the right approach and a focus on the main story and not the many tangents, this could be a fun virtual reality treasure hunt adventure which I believe Steven Spielberg is more than capable of pulling off.

What’s Up Thursday #5

Its been 2 months, y’all! 2 entire months that I haven’t done this post.

It was meant to be a casual segment though. So with the posts going up, really there wasn’t too much to talk about. Actually there was because when watching lots of movies, I actually binged through some TV series and played a ton of games on the downtime. However, this time, I do want to because I skipped a Weekly Adventures. Its okay if you didn’t notice but I want to make up for it just a little so here we are!

BINGING

Yup. The husband finally got his wish so we are watching Ash vs. Evil Dead, the first season. Its really fun and everything you would expect it to be especially if you like Army of Darkness which we do. You can see my review for it HERE.

Other than that, I’m just catching up with TV binge posts so not really watching anything else other than the last season Shark Tank. I am about to start Stranger Things though, or maybe something else like start Quantico or actually finish Cardinal, which I’ve put on hold for a few months.

READING

I literally just started Ready Player One a few days ago. I’ve been taking my time and energy levels are a little low in turn concentration not there also. So, hopefully next week, I will be back to the reading mood now that I’ve caught up with my long to-do list.

PLAYING

If you are a subscriber over on the Game Warp Youtube channel (consider subscribing if you haven’t), you’ll probably realize that I have a ton of playthroughs going on there. The goal now is to wrap games up so I always have a longer game and some shorter ones to work on. The main focus and ones that have me captivated and grinding through (respectively or simulataneously) are these three.

As of today, the goal is to wrap up The Darkside Detective and have all the playthroughs up by mid next week. Which is completely doable. The Darkside Detective is a fun point and click paranormal adventure. We had a chat with the devs Spooky Doorway last month. You can find it HERE. Our review should be up soon.

Now that I’ve gotten my husband watching Ash vs. Evil Dead, I have possession of the Playstation 4 again. And its gotten me back into the groove of console gaming so I’m playing through the first Crash Bandicoot from the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, which is so hard! Its a huge grind especially the level that I just passed with the helpful tip of my co-host. Now, its onwards to the next level which is another boulder chase…I’ll get it eventually. 😉

Thumper was the most recent game that I purchased, along with two rather popular visual novels which I’ll probably do a chill stream on soon (maybe Friday nights or something). I was determined to wait for it to have a price drop on PS4 because I just don’t see my PC giving me the same visual experience. And it did during E3! I’m a sucker for rhythm games and this one is kind of like a hardcore WipeOut with Patapon battle styles. Each level is about 20+ separate stages which act as checkpoints and it usually has at least a boss and a final boss to defeat. Its all about reaction and coordination (in some ways) and I love it. I love games that challenge you in this sort of way, possibly one of the biggest differences as gamers between myself and my husband, I’d say.

Other games that I’m working on would be

• The Elder Scrolls Legends: Heroes of Skyrim which this card battle is properly kicking me in the behind. So I’m taking a break from it as to gather my thoughts and strategy.
• Drifting Lands: a fun one but also stuck at a level right now. Shoot ’em up is not really my type of game but there’s some odd satisfaction to this one.

That’s it for this What’s Up segment!
What have you been binging, reading and/or playing?