I’m not really upset by it or anything. It just stuck out and, unlike the retro stuff, felt very much like “Hey, play Overwatch!” Especially its inclusion in the movie trailer.
Probably less “Hey, play Overwtch!” and more “I understood that reference!”
The 80s references will probably be lost on a lot of the younger generation, so instead of going straight-up 80s like the book, they’ll have the Delorean speeding around next to one of the cars from Fast & Furious or one of the bikes from Halo
In this world of slow lingering shots on Coke cans and Audi grills, I suspect you’re being a bit too generous.
It doesn’t seem that egregious to me–it’s a distinctive looking character, easily recognized in a crowd. A perfect type of ‘2010s’ character to show up (and stand out) in a brief cameo in what looks like a large battle sequence with thousands of participants.
Anyway, on to something different in the trailer…
I’ll spoiler this just in case, for those who haven’t read the book. Regarding one type of 80s character/reference that some have been wondering whether it/they would show up:
There is a Gundam briefly near the end of the trailer! I think maybe it’s Aech’s, based on a character chart for the novel I saw somewhere.
I read that Spielberg made a conscious choice to keep his own properties largely out of the film aside from a few obvious exceptions, such as the Delorean. He felt that there was more than enough 80s material to work with that he didn’t need to fanboy his own material. So I guess no Indiana Jones/Goonies/Gremlins/ET references. I don’t recall if any of that was in the book anyway.
Yes, nothing he directed appears in the movie, but the Delorean is from a movie he produced and is pretty cool/important, so he kept it.
That actually seems surprisingly light and superficial. Which probably explains why I couldn’t recall anything off the top of my head if it’s all passing references like “Also, we did a Goonies mission” and calling someone “Dr. Jones”. I would have guessed that there was more stuff and I was just forgetting it given the 80’s relevance of Spielberg in general.
I guess no one wants a flying bicycle as their ride in Oasis 
But it’s fitting completely within the aesthetic of the movie. This isn’t Hawaii 5-0 we’re talking about, it’s closer to having a Doritos logo on the outfield wall of MLB 2K18. Sure, Pepsi paid for it to be there, but there are adverts on the outfield wall IRL too.
It’s more natural.
We’ll have to leave that as a matter of opinion. It’s a hard sell to tell me something is “more natural” after it just stuck out for me like a sore thumb and it struck me enough for me to comment on it.
But if I can live with lingering, loving vehicle shots in the Marvel movies, I’ll survive this as well.
I guess I’m just confused why in a movie that’s almost literally about pop culture references, a pop culture reference leads you to think it means “sales!” more than the others. Overwatch girl is next to Chun-Li, does that not say “buy Street Fighter?”
Chun-Li was introduced in 1991, falling into the tail end of the fandom period evoked by the story (and Street Fighter itself was from 1987).
Overwatch Girl is a product of 2016.
Kind of a weak comparison. Ready Player One isn’t just generically about pop culture, it’s about pop culture from a a particular period in time which is a major facet of the book. That all these guys live and breathe the 80’s (and late 70s/early 90s) as a result of Halliday’s fascination with that period.
In fact, according to this list, Ready Player One references Street Fighter II in the story. So a Chun-Li appearance actually makes sense.
Sure, the main protagonists are obsessed with the period, but it’s supposed to be a big virtual world out there, and plenty of other players have to have different obsessions. It would be weird if *everything *there was from 1975-1995.
Ahh ok. So it’s the modernity that bugs you. Gotcha.
Remember that the OASIS encompasses more than just the 80s - Halliday was obsessed with the 80s so that became the focus of gunters, but pretty much everything pop culture should or could be in there. Wade mentions having a thing for Youtube videos of girls playing the ukulele, which is a later phenomenon.
Yeah. It sticks out like a big ad because it’s anachronistic for the plot. I would imagine there’s be D&D references in there and D&D is still a thing you can buy but it wasn’t 25 years late to the party.
But the Gunters themselves were all about the 80s to the exclusion of anything else because taking time to get into something else would have taken them out of the hunt. Somewhere out there was no doubt Westboros and Pandora and Brony Island and Twilight-Land and Harry Potter-verse, etc but those were never part of the story (despite all having an established and deep fandom when RPO was written) because that’s not who the Gunters were and the book was a story about the Gunter race for the egg. A Gunter who ran around dressed like Harry Potter and riding a broom would have probably been laughed out of the community as a huge poser and wannabe.
But I suppose we’ll see when the movie comes out if we’re looking at a couple stick-out sore thumb moments or an honest collect of fan items from across the decades.
Grace Vanderwaal didn’t show up until after the book was released…
Also, was it only Gunters who turned up for the big siege and battle in the third act? I seem to recall that a pretty significant cross-section of the Oasis turned out just because of what a huge bunch of pricks the Sixers were being. I could see a crotchety Millennial turning up to take up the Good Old Fight™ against the Corporate goons.
Could be. Guess it depends on when they show up in the film. I think it’ll really depend more on whether or not there’s a whole bunch of different fan stuff represented or if it’s 99% 80s stuff with a couple stick-out modern things thrown in and fan wanked as “Well, there’d be other stuff in the OASIS even if, bizarrely, no one else was there except these two contemporary guys”.
In the book, it was more than just gunters since the word went out to the entire OASIS, with even the real-world media picking up the story. There had to be tons of looky-loos along with the gunters. It was less about other egg hunters showing up and more about everyone wanting to keep IOI from winning showing up.
I’m hoping they leave in “knavery.”