Ready Player One, as I’ve said numerous times, is one of my favourite novels. It’s author, Ernest Cline, is a total nerd that I really look up to. I love both of his books, Ready Player One and Armada and cannot wait until he releases more. When it was announced that a film was on the way from Steven Spielberg, I was pretty excited. The trailer concerned me when it came though. Some big moments from the book had clearly been adapted and there was a strange focus on the Iron Giant who didn’t feature at all in the novelisation. I realise I sound like one of those people, ‘oh the books are way better than the film’s, but with the source material being that important to me I don’t mind being one of those people. I’m not pre-judging it and I’ll definitely be going to see it around launch. I’m just nervous of what it will be and I know even now I’m going to struggle to separate the book and the film and look at them objectively as independent entities. If you know anything about the source material you’ll know it features a lot of nostalgia. It’s actually the focus of the plot. James Halliday, the Steve Jobs of this universe, dies and leaves billions of dollars and a controlling stake in his VR world in his will. The person to find his Easter Egg within The Oasis (the VR world) will be awarded all of this and it’s clear a knowledge of Halliday’s interests (he’s a fan of the 1980s) and the inner workings of his mind will be the key to succeeding.
The film has doubled down on the nostalgia by photoshopping it’s primary characters onto iconic movie posters including Back to the Future, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Beetlejuice, The Goonies and more. Sounds like a good fit I hear you say. Well, the internet disagreed. It disagreed BIG TIME. Ready Player One was trending for all the wrong reasons today and received a battering, especially on Twitter. Poking fun at the audience it was trying to grab was definitely on the cards…
…some commentators went for the throat and took umbridge with the fact that a marketing campaign shouldn’t be leeching off the success of other films…
…whilst others became horribly self aware and just gave up.
I’m personally indifferent to the posters myself. They aren’t great, having zero Photoshop skills myself, even I know these could have been put together better, but I don’t know whether that was the point. Are they trying to be ‘retro’ bad? Want to make your mind up for yourself? Check out the eleven posters below. Will you be seeing the film? Are you a fan of the book? Let us know what you think by tweeting us @CelebrityCutout
