MOVIE - Ready Player One

PG (2:20)

Wide release 3/29/18

Viewed on a Thursday off, 4/5/18 in Hanover at the RC Theater there - a 1:20 showing, I was the only one in the HUGE auditorium.
IMBd:  8/10

RT Critic: 74   Audience:  80
Critic's Consensus:  Ready Player One is a sweetly nostalgic thrill ride that neatly encapsulates Spielberg's strengths while adding another solidly engrossing adventure to his filmography.

Cag:  3.5

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Warner Brothers Pictures

Based on the book by Ernest Cline

My comments:  It was okay...entertaining....a LOT of battle scenes, the last one, when they're fighting for entrance to find the final key is painstakingly long.  Drove me a bit crazy.  It's a long movie.  But fun.  Not great.  Book was, of course, better....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline's bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

3. Warcross by Marie Lu

Warcross #1
listened to on Audible
2017 G. P. Putnam Sons
368 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 1/7/18
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 18,711 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: NYC and Tokyo in the somewhat-foreseeable future

First line/s:  "It's too damn cold of a day to be out on a hunt."

My comments: Well.  Many people have compared this to Ready Player One, but that is definitely not a comparison I'd use.  I liked Ready Player One lots more, and I rated it 3.5.  So why am I left feeling flat?  I very much like the protagonist: super smart, thoughtful, cute and tiny.  Sure of herself.  We discover that she's an incredible hacker, but other than something she herself seems surprised to have done, it's very hard to believe from the little she reveals about how she got where she is.  Little stories, but not enough for me to be a believer.  And there are very few surprises.  I had guessed early on who the mysterious "bad guy" was.  I was also able to surmise who the one bounty hunter who was revealed was.  And this was one of those audio readers that I didn't enjoy.  She stressed different words in a sentence than I would have stressed if reading it myself.  I didn't like the accents she gave people, or the femininity of her voice for all the characters.  It just didn't really work for me.  Perhaps if I'd read it instead of listening to it?  Might take my rating up a half point....

Goodreads synopsis: For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.
          Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

19. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Audio read by Wil Wheaton

13 unabridged cds (15.5 hrs)

2011 Random House

374 pgs.

YA/Adult Fantasy

Finished 3/5/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.31

My rating:  3.5

TPPL

Setting: Oklahoma City & Columbus, but most of it was inside a virtual world

My comments:  This was certainly not my "usual" type of book.  It's all about 1980 video games being played in the 2040's, when the physical earth is in tatters and everyone lives pretty much in the virtual world of OASIS, with their personal avatar trying to find a virtual "egg" that a crazy now-dead billionaire programmer left as the prize at the end of an all-consuming quest.  Phew.  That sentence is too long, but it says it all!  Of the 13 unabridged cds, there are probably four or five complete cds worth of 1980s game, music, movie, and computer talk.  None of this really interested me, but the exceptional reading voice of Wil Wheaton kept me on track and I greatly enjoyed the story itself.  I compare it to The Circle in that it made me think of a future world where technology consumes us and changes the meaning of humanity completely.

Goodreads book summary:  In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. 
   But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.