The WORST Gaming Tie-in Film | Ready Player One

Ready Player One was a movie that I absolutely couldn't STAND. So let me tell you why.
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[@tiredmothlad]

one of my biggest pet peeves about the movie is about the first 'egg' and how to find it. They are telling me no one had tried being stupid and driving/backing up into the wall as full speed!! no one!! not even out of boredom or even just messing around!!

[@MxchiefMaykr]

Exactly! The number of Easter eggs that have been found in games both purely accidentally and out of sheer frustration by doing stuff like throwing yourself at a wall or glitching through level geometry is pretty wild. Even without the 3iq clue there's no way that Easter egg in anything as big as the Oasis is in universe would go more than a day before being solved

[@StarPichu12]

Hell, I'd have been caught out not reading the controls and done it by accident XD

[@Madrigal025]

I mean ffs, speed runners found the very very specific FRAME PERFECT animation glitches that let's you basically teleport to very specific points in Elden Ring DAYS after its release.

[@StarPichu12]

@@Madrigal025 Pokemon scarlet and violet aren't even out yet and people are already finding out secrets XD

[@MissCaraMint]

Yeah and the fact that the way he found the egg originally was actually clever. In fact he wasn’t he first one to figure it out Art3mis found the entrance first but just took a day longer to beat the level. She still figured out the clue first though.

[@RedlineXLR]

When I saw Ready Player One in theaters , sat behind me was someone my friends and I lovingly dubbed “Reference Man” Reference Man laughed, clapped, and cheered louder than an air raid siren every time he saw something he recognized on screen. And he did it such a predictable degree that his girlfriend was able to shush him in advance To this day I don’t know if I hate reference man for being loud, or if I envy him for his ability to be so unbridled in his love for the things he enjoyed in his childhood, and unburdened of the fear of public judgement … anyway I’d give the movie a 4/10.

[@MertKayKay]

Reference Man sounds like a metaphor for the inner child 🙏 and also someone I'd be very sad to sit near

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Reference Man, Reference Man, knows whatever a reference can!

[@stuglife5514]

I hope to god reference man is living his best life out there.

[@thespanishinquisition4078]

Reference man is happy and in the end that's what we're supposed to strive for, so I'd say he's a role model. Be like reference man, give not a single shit what anyone else thinks, enjoy life and don't let people get you down just because your taste is shit.

[@RedlineXLR]

@@thespanishinquisition4078 100%. Being in touch with your inner child is a gift. As long as it’s your inner child. Just being a bit of a child is how we get stories where the main character professes their love to a girl he’s never met. 😂 Reference Man was definitely the former. Hope that dudes out there continuing to live his best life

[@lazylistmaker]

re: H and the accuracy of whether WOC uninterested in male attention would cosplay across gender and racial lines: Lemme just say that a non-human, non-female avatar is absolutely an option I have taken when I just wanted to game without dudes deciding to get weird. It's not so much "I want to lie to these people" as "I'll just let them make assumptions so I don't have to deal with preconceptions". Taking a non-human avatar actually feels like less of a lie because it's so obviously removed from the reality. I mean, nobody's going to feel catfished by an orc.

[@thanatoast]

Mfw she isn't a half-centaur kitsune dragon angel princess catgirl irl: 😭😭😭

[@randomnerd3402]

Lemme tell you there's definitely people that thirst over orcs

[@simonm1233]

As a trans poc yes

[@arbitarious]

@@simonm1233 same

[@gloriousbastard3319]

As a non-binary clown, yes, I 100% agree. Choosing a non-human avatar removes half the shit people might potentially say to you in an online game out of the picture. No more gender-related stereotypes and slurs, only pure fun of being an ork or a ghoul or an eldrich thing.

[@YourLocalTomboy]

Finally... I'm tired of pretending this movie is good

[@SaberRexZealot]

This passes as good for most people? Man we really are doomed.

[@rabenmacht3396]

Did anyone ever do that???

[@pasty609]

I don't think I've ever seen someone refer to this movie as good

[@the_regular_dinosaurus_rex]

who in the world ever said this is good?

[@KyleHarmieson]

Why were you doing that?

[@facepalmvideos1]

"Read the book" goto reply is so funny, considering the book is even worse, lol Also, I don't remember who said it first, but the joyles-boomer-main-bad-guy who desperatly wants to be seen as cool and flexes his nerd trivia while just listening to said trivia being googled for him by a bunch of faceless nerds is a pitch perfect metaphore for the movie itself.

[@Densoro]

Holy shit what a savage indictment. Beautiful lmao

[@Powered1Buttercup]

I didn’t read it but isn’t there a scene in the first book where a japanese guy commits seppuku, the authors actual words for him committing suicide??! 😂

[@HappyLarry.]

The first book isn't that bad, compared to the movie.

[@rafabuda0]

The first book is alright, nothing spectacular but it's a fun enough read stuffed with 80's references. The second book... oh boy.

[@HappyLarry.]

@@rafabuda0 man really went "the hoes gon' looooooove this"

[@m1ssw1z61]

This movie just made me feel bad for Morrow. Like, you openly speak up about the issue of more people ignoring problems in the real world, end up having to leave the company because of it, your wife dies at a younger age. And your ex-bestie then creates a virtual version of your dead wife that players could potentially do whatever they wanted with. Oh and you are now needing to look after your entire personal memory bank of you and your ex-bestie... Because that's just... Out there.... The second book tries to explain how messed up this is but... Yikes the second book...

[@MertKayKay]

Yes!! I wish I'd mentioned this because it's such a good point! Poor Morrow getting shut out of Gregarious Games and then having to watch his poor wife get pined over

[@Scarylyn14]

I won’t even read the second book, I read a synopsis and went, “Well I want no part of this.” 😅

[@thomasb7347]

​@@Scarylyn14Its just as bad as you think....I'd almost be impressed if he actually went the way of Wade beijg made into the villain sonce hw gets more and more authoritarian and awful but nope, he is the protwgonist so all his evil choices are the right ones and he just knows better

[@simontheblind8417]

"Staggered its way onto the screen, then shit itself and died" You are beautiful. Never change. "Enough criticism" cannot be heaped on this film, for so many reasons.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh hell yes Simon, I'm excited to hear your take on this

[@simontheblind8417]

@@MertKayKay I can't comment on everything you brought up, or to the same depth, but this movie genuinely offends me. It's a patchwork. None of the references belong together. Are they trying to appeal to 12-year-olds, or 42-year-olds? Nintendo fans, or PC gamers, or console jockeys? Racing fans? FPS gamers? Adventure fans? There's varying amounts of crossover with all of these, and I understand that there's a general gaming hobby, but nobody is that all-encompassing. The writers of the RP1 script don't seem to understand that, which leads into my second peeve. They don't know shit about jack. There's no depth to any of the references. I was born in 1980; I watch Stranger Things, for example, and I think "these guys were nerdy little 80's dorks like me." I get some warm fuzzies, even if it's been a downhill slide since series 1. The references have as much substance behind them as a pop culture reference *can*. Meanwhile, there's RP1, which comes off like "we don't know the first thing about any of this stuff, but hey, money to be made. You kids like, uh, games, right?" like they're a bunch of pedophiles trying to lure 8-year-old kids into their van with black licorice, wondering why they aren't having any success. There's the product placement. Product placement can feel natural, or it can be humorously over the top. It can't be both at once, or it's neither. The two are mutually exclusive. Not much more to say about that. RP1 plays like they want a best supporting actor nod for that bag of Dorito's. What you said about the awfulness of the kid's upbringing. There's a personal twinge at that, but I see what you're getting at, and I agree that it's an overused trope. It's the kind of thing that's put into writing by someone who has no idea what it's like to be abused as a kid. Moving on before my mood sours completely. Dystopian future. Ok. I read "Brave new World," and I read "1984," and I can't decide whether our immediate future looks likely to head down the path of the former, the latter, or both. It may do none of the above, but you can see how it *would* because both stories refuse to let us look away from real problems in the real world. RP1 got as far as the stack caravans before my eyes rolled so hard that they fell out of my head. That's actually the moment when I lost my vision. True story. Not really, but it's a better story than... THE STUPID, UGLY, STUPID, SHITTY, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A STORY. I refuse to go into specifics. I admire you for not throwing up while making that video, or was that just edited out? My 6-year-old nephew tells stories that he just made up off the top of his head with better characters, better plot development, and more relevance to anything real. RP1 is like the wet dream of someone who ought to see a doctor, because they shouldn't be having wet dreams yet, they're too young. I'm pretty sure that the movie was fundamentally driven by an immature child-man who thinks he's the smartest person in a lineup that includes Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton. I'd say "The smartest person in the room," but I'm thinking he's usually the only one in the room/basement. He collects Star Wars toys (wait, isn't Spielberg involved in this?) and plays *mobile games* I'll bet, and thinks that he's King Nerd of Nerdlandia. He honestly thinks his "masterpiece" (he probably calls it his "magna opus," because he'll get the first word wrong) is intelligent and thought-provoking. The worst part is, it leaves me needing to think while I'm watching it, only to knit together all the poorly-written crap and incoherent bullshit. HE MADE ME THINK WHILE I WAS WATCHING *THIS*. I HAVE TO DO THE GODDAMN WORK TO MAKE THIS TRASH BARGE ENTERTAINING. Fuck him. I hope his mother dies in a fire. If she's already gone, I hope she miraculously resurrects, so she can die in a fire.

[@regulargoat7259]

@@simontheblind8417 i think a lot of the problems with the movie were inherited from the novel. The author just… isnt good at authoring? He expects you to understand references he likes that the primarily YA audience won’t get while somehow still overexplaining other references that he seemingly just throws in there because its popular but doesnt understand himself. And its worse in the second book. That Prince section, man…

[@DeaDiabola]

@@simontheblind8417 "THE STUPID, UGLY, STUPID, SHITTY, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A STORY" sums up my feelings perfectly and it caused me immense duress hearing my friends praise it as the apex of nerd culture when it came out.

[@ToplessTopics]

I'm still lolling at "I was so scared I was dyeing my couch brown" from one of their horror game reviews. Mert's foul mouthed witticisms leave me in stitches every video.

[@trulyrandom2]

I would have 100% LOVED it if it was revealed that the Iron Giant wasn't able to be used for violence at all, like it was actually programmed that way in the OASIS. That would have been cool as shit and also likely something someone would do.

[@MissCaraMint]

Or maybe it’s programmed to use exclusively defensive moves

[@joshraid1550]

Yeah that would be a fun way to beat him that actually shows an understanding of the story it’s pointing to.

[@marocat4749]

like himonly used for defence would have been great

[@clarkmichaels822]

People should know that Brad Bird adapted The Iron Giant to a screenplay in reference to his sister getting shot to death. He pitched the idea to Warner Bros with "What if a gun had a soul, and didn't want to be a gun?". To then use it as a fighting robot in an action scene in a shitty nostalgia-bait movie seems especially ironic.

[@technounionrepresentative4274]

like imagine if it were used to gently avoid harming people, wading through the sea of enemies while letting the main character get into the castle for the final egg, you could still have the giant robot fighting Mecha Godzilla or whatever, just use pretty much any other giant robot

[@Maiscribbles]

"I'll even talk about women." Women? Hide the comic books! Thank you for this video! I subscribed a while ago and I love how you talk about games and media! Keep it up!

[@MertKayKay]

No worries Mai! Thanks so much for watching and glad you enjoy :D

[@ddjsoyenby]

oh god no not women..........IT'LL CAUSE A DUDEBRO MELTDOWN TO RIVAL TLOU2! :O

[@arcadesrstillcool3778]

@@ddjsoyenby The only way to save the mission is to either turn them all into love interests or kill them off!!!!

[@DeaDiabola]

Its very strange that those very same cishet men want to date women with the same interests, all while alienating them entirely by acting like women can never be "good enough" nerds or "true fans". Super obnoxious.

[@bubblegumcrab]

To your point about H, making a lesbian poc woman an orc seems... odd. It feels like it has the implications of lesbians being masculine. I had figured she was a male orc so she didn't face sexism, as I would have. But knowing she was supposed to be a presenting white man makes the orc thing feel very.... low key offensive

[@unimportant246]

Especially which orcs being the usually the "fantasy race" stand in for black people... with its own terrible history

[@bubblegumcrab]

@@unimportant246 Yo, I didn't even think about that, but you are right

[@descent1667]

i myself am a masculine lesbian so that implication isn't something i inherently mind, but there's something...odd about how it's done, i think. if the movie had bothered to discuss how making her avatar a male with a fantasy race was connected to just not wanting to deal with how people are online when you're a woman and/or of color it would make more sense, but as-is it's strange, and seems more like a straight guy's perspective of lesbian masculinity rather than anything more accurate to more lesbians' experiences with gender identity and expression

[@mophead_xu]

also, the fact that she may have gotten that inspiration from her mother, who stated that the reason she chose her avatar to be a white man was because _she gained better experience both in social and professional life_ just adds to the oddity of the choice, i think? because i think it's a very explicit nudge (not even commentary yet) towards the discussion of racial discrimination, but they didn't even bother asking _why_ that sort of presentation was even needed to an overall quality of life improvement? i get that if the story were to thoroughly investigate that question it'll be ultimately a different story (and a much heavier one than the fun adventure quest story it's meant to be), but still ... come on, not even a, "holy shit that's pretty fucked up" "yeah i know"? so there's this: 1) weird allusions of lesbians being masculine; 2) a whole other can of worms of a black person being depicted as a non-human creature, specifically an orc; and 3) the unceremonious dropping of the topic of racial discrimination right after it was brought up and never be spoken about again. all in all, it's just weird!!

[@SuperNuclearUnicorn]

Yeah I felt pretty icky about the orc thing. Also wonder if it's because they didn't want to make the white guys in the audience feel uncomfortable

[@acridyd]

I was 34 when I watched Ready Player One, so I'm old enough to have nostalgic memories from my youth of movies like Child's Play, Jurassic Park, the Iron Giant, and even Peter Jackson's Kong, but I can't say that Ready Player One ingratiated me to those references. They felt more pandering than fun. Not so much a walk down memory lane as being flashed by the Master Chief in a long trench coat down a neon back alley.

[@IrishMorgenstern]

Never read the book. Not interested. But any criticism I have of the movie can be valid because the book and the movie should stand on their own. If anything, one should make you excited to see the other.

[@calemr]

The book is better, but still not Good. It's still largely shallow references, just "Hey, remember this thing? We have nothing to say about it beyond some stuff we took from a Wikipedia article, but if this made you happy, you might associate this book with that happiness now!", But it's still a little better. Like, minor example, the door at the end requires 3 keys and thus, 3 people need to clear the challenges Together. It's only possible to open with other people's help. Easter egg hunting is a collaborative effort, and the person who takes over the oasis should be someone who can make interpersonal relationships, something Halliday felt incapable of doing himself. While the movie has Wade open it on his own and just get Told "Hey by the way friendship is important." By Halliday's ghost in the machine.

[@mophead_xu]

yeah exactly. when it comes to adaptations, the source material may provide additional context that can elevate your enjoyment/appreciation of the adapted version (and it's definitely a plus point), but it _shouldn't_ be a required reading.

[@pinkfoxboi1331]

Worst film ever made

[@elizabethnorris7654]

As for hiding your identity just so you can interact with people in online games without learning just how/what flavour of weird they would be if they knew who you really are... it's actually one of the reasons I went off online gaming spaces so quickly. I did enjoy playing the Mass Effect 3 online multiplayer for a while, but I learned alarmingly quickly that I tended to get kicked out of groups when I used my own, obviously feminine name; not so when I used my partner's gamer tag, which is clearly a boy's name. Like during the day I go out, I get openly ogled, have people covertly taking photos of me, I get beeped at from vehicles, I get whistled at, and sometimes they even come and engage me directly in conversation so I have to respond (I usually just pretend I didn't notice, it feels easier than trying to respond to it. The only time I've responded was because while I looked to be alone I knew my now-husband was nearby... funny how they tend not to bother you if you look like you're with your owner)... then when I get home safely I'm not then going to switch on a video game and go into an environment where I get digital equivalents of that. I'm just too tired of this shit. One time I was getting drinks after a choir rehearsal and I ended up at a table with a whole bunch of women and one dude, and as I sat down with my drink I started complaining about a thing that had happened to me earlier that day, and when I did, every lady at the table started chiming in with similar stories, and that went on for a really long time. That poor one dude, he was clearly shook at the sheer volume and ubiquity of the stories, and the fact that all of us were so blasé about it. He kind of kept just stammering "im so sorry O___o;;;"

[@Densoro]

Your point at 50:50 reminds me of a Kingdom Hearts retrospective that pointed out something I never realized: In the first game, the Disney planets Sora visited _were narrative foils for where he was at in his hero's journey._ Alice in Wonderland symbolizes his fall into a disorienting new reality, Hercules makes him reflect on his responsibilities as a hero, etc. It's almost like we see how these stories shape a growing child, and reflect on how they shaped _us_ at that age. And then by the time KH2 rolled around, it was this recursive self-reference, asking not just 'Hey remember when this movie came out???' but also 'Hey remember last time we referenced it???' It's a reference _to the last reference._ 'Hey remember?' crossovers miss such a perfect chance to _celebrate the power of storytelling._

[@MiyukiShiroitori]

i think why halliday made morrow give up his share of the company was literally because morrow "got kira all for himself" and so halliday wanted to have the company all for himself. and god the fact that morrow was the one who curated the halliday library and was therefore the one who decided to remove all other mentions of kira... u know he deleted so many files of halliday doing just thee worst incel rants abt kira from the library. i love that u brought up gamergate in this bc it really has had such a huge impact on nerd spaces to this day and it imo not acknowledged enough. like the fact that this MASSIVE hate campaign was happening less than a decade ago and reported on IN REAL NEWS PAPERS GLOBALLY and some young adults are completely unaware of it... saddens me. like some ppl in their late teens/early 20's will think that incel stuff started in 2020's but it's been happening for so long...... i've suffered thru this movie and i never read the book BUT i only watched the movie because i listened to 372 pages we can't get back podcast and had a good time laughing at the book being ripped apart.

[@MertKayKay]

That's a really good point about Morrow honestly! He was probably sick to death of just seeing hours and hours of footage of Halliday pining after his poor wife.

[@thanatoast]

Just here to remind you that Ernest C also wrote that awful porn poem where he talks about how hot he finds """nerdy""" girls and he doesn't view them as objects like other guys

[@MertKayKay]

While I was making the video I actually got sent that poem, and I was like "no, this has to be a joke" so I didn't cover it here 🤣 little did I know

[@stardustzombie7282]

I was searching for this comment lmaooo that ‘poem’ is an absolute travesty, the worst part being about how overwhelmingly smug Ernest is about finding girls who wear glasses and aren’t blonde sexy

[@makoto1234]

I am forever haunted by the fact that the poem isn't satire and is in fact completely sincere and written in earnest by a real human being

[@DrOmni]

I never actually realised how shallow this movie's definition of a fan is, in how it glorifies gatekeeping as a literal source of moral and social reform and presents everyone beneath the bar of acceptance as morally and intellectually stagnant. To be fair, I never watched this movie but have had it explained enough to have experienced it through osmosis. You would think it would come up, but I guess not. Thanks for the (very personal) new take on this. I'll definitely continue to think on this. I quite enjoyed it, even if I have no personal perspective to offer in return.

[@elizabethnorris7654]

The whole mystery element - and that Wade's intelligence and worth as a fan is expressed just by his having many many facts memorised - is really quite sad to me, in light of how the whole P.T. thing went down. I think I heard that Kojima expected it to be about a week for people to crack it, and it ended up being more like a day, I guess because he slightly underestimated 1) the dedication and 2) the sheer scope of the community. Like people were scouring it for clues, the game itself was so interesting oh this clue is someone rambling in Swedish, wait that guy is Swedish so we'll just get that translated, oh this sequence of numbers is a cipher, let's run through that... Try not to think about what happened to the whole Silent Hills thing...

[@calemr]

It's not just gatekeepery and shallow about knowledge of the media, it's also utterly shallow in the understanding of the media. Like, Sorento says he wants to make all the schools into copies of the ones from Ferris Bueller, and Wade just goes "Eh, I arbitrarily don't trust you." Instead of, eg, "If you knew the movie, not just the names and the quotes, but Actually knew it, you'd know that Glenbrook North was a terrible place to be. The whole movie was About avoiding it, and you want to subject every kid to that?" But shallow, empty pandering, name drops and quotations, is exactly what the movie does.

[@MissCaraMint]

@@calemr yeah that would have been better.

[@johnpaton8607]

My wife and I actually grow up in the sixties and seventies, and there are actually lots of references to those decades as well, which we loved. With that said we found the main story boring, the characters one note and no matter how hard we tried the world building seemed to unreal to suspend disbelieve.

[@IlyTheVampire]

God, I remember when I tried to read the book: I got to the scene (or, I presume, the first scene of this kind) where an annoying "fake fan" tried to quiz him about something, but of course he knew all the answers, and it turned into an obscure trivia challenge, and then everybody clapped. Ew. I immediately went online like "this is satire, right? The author is trying to say that Wade sucks, right?" and *everybody* told me that no, it was played absolutely straight and the author worships Wade. Gave up on the book there and then. I didn't even bother with the film, of course, so before watching this video I only had a vague idea of all of its problems. Like, I heard (mainly thanks to Jenny Nicholson's video) of the ironically hollow references, and I could have guessed that they would be particularly shitty toward female characters, but WOW, that's really something else. (Honestly, hyperbole or not, I don't think that you were wrong when you said that this mess of a movie was a step back for humanity).

[@MissCaraMint]

I really didn’t get that impression. I definitely figured the point was that a guy who was constantly living online immersing himself in massive amounts of 80s nerd culture, was obviously going to be a socially inept asshole. He even gets punished for his niceguyness when he invaded Art3mis’s privacy. I honestly felt the he had the potential to grow and become a better character at the end. After all he just had to go through and watch his hero be all regretful about his own life choices. I was left with the a “don’t make my mistakes” vibe. Go out there and live in real life. Ironically. From that point of view I really liked the book. I like Wade becoming gradually better, but not unrealistically magically becoming perfect at the end. No. Self growth takes time, and setting it up for him to be ready to take that journey at the end was enough of an ending for me. So yeah that was my take. Maybe it’s not the way the author intended it to be read. I haven’t really seen or heard much about the author in general.

[@DeaDiabola]

LMAO. Oh my god. The books are usually far better than the film adaptations, but that scene you just described genuinely makes me want to laugh but also, rip my skin off and light myself on fire.

[@gamewizardthesecond]

I felt completely isolated knowing like 90% of the references as a 17/16 year old when the movie came out, especially cus im in the balkans. That's what the movie was for me tbh, a reference checklist Edit: also, art3mis has the akira motorbike and doesn't do the slide, for shame

[@Kawamagi]

WHAT?!! How can you call yourself a big "nErD" movie and not do the slide. honestly the movie feels like someone googled "Nerd references" and slapped it with boomer tech bad, creating this horrible thing

[@DeaDiabola]

@@Kawamagi "Haha remember THING? I totally do. I'm like, SUCH a nerd. Now laugh."

[@BuggingonBeeroids]

Inb4 the book was better. The book was actually WORSE. Literally a story about a self insert having the author's same snobbish attitude about how cool and superior his interest in 80s and 90s media is. It's so ****ing frustrating how every conflict or obstacle is solved by "but I already knew all the things I needed to know, because that's how dedicated I am to *insert pop culture thing here* or "I worked it out because I'm just that good". There's some serious misogyny from the MC but the author justifies it because he's actually really an empathetic and good guy 'cos he's attracted to a girl with a birthmark on her face. It's hilarious what it says about the author, he puts some lip service to being self aware and self critical but that's just it, lip service. He isn't a nerd, he's a weird elitist, desperately holding onto his nostalgia like it makes him a worthwhile human being instead of building his own personality

[@MertKayKay]

Oh no! I heard really good things about the book and I didn't want to pre-judge it, it's a shame to hear that it was worse in a lot of ways. It sounds like a very frustrating read. (also thanks for watching Alexander!)

[@BuggingonBeeroids]

@@MertKayKay keep up the good work! Hope to see you reeling in that elusive KZbinr™ money soon 👍 I probably should have started with "Imo" and ended with "maybe that was a little harsh."

[@Kammereer]

@@MertKayKay Some parts are better, some parts are worse. IMO, the core difference is malice. Ernest Cline is a gormless idiot whose Hollywood connections set him up for a cushy life of writing fanfiction about how much he'd totally be friends with George Lucas if they ever meet. So he's regressive and socially inept and his books and screenplays are shit. But crucially - Ernest Cline is not a corporation. Ready Player One the book isn't trying to sell you Star Wars and Joust and Atari. It's Ernest Cline trying to wow you with his nerd cred and gush about how much better the pop culture back in his youth was. Ready Player One the movie _is_ made by a corporation. And they are trying to sell you everything. Its jagged shards of cringe are polished by sensitivity experts, but it is now a marketing campaign to get you clapping to whatever corporate slop they shovel out next. And in that regard, I'd rather read the book than watch the movie. Or stab myself a couple of times rather than doing either.

[@Nikki_the_G]

@@MertKayKay It's... notoriously horrible.

[@fall190]

@@MertKayKay There's a podcast about the book called "372 pages". Its hilarious just how TERRIBLE the book is. The book describes him having sex with a sex doll and that his haptic suit had discrete openings so he can relieve himself...shudders. In another one of Ernie's books there is a list of movies and games that goes on for multiple pages. It takes the audiobook narrator 7 and a half minutes to go through it. ITS INSANE.

[@sanityscraps]

I have a friend who read this book and liked it. He tried to read parts of it aloud to me, and every passage I was like, "My dude, you like this? You enjoy this?" "It's Monty Python!" "So?"

[@rayn3245]

God, I relate to making up lies about myself in online games to avoid creepiness a bit too much... sometimes I just exaggerate my age or casually mention the imaginary husband that I have... One time before leaving a particularly weird lobby I said "Alright guys, I gotta go drive my kids to school now" and before exiting I heard one dude exclaim "KIDS!?!?!"

[@humphrke]

Not online, but working in customer service I used to do this too. Except, I have a very young looking face, so when I had creepy guys hit on me I'd mention something about being in middle school or high school. Go as young as I could get away with

[@friedmattato2158]

RPO is so frustrating. It's one of the coolest worlds in fiction made in service to one of the worst plots featuring the most cringe protagonists ever made. I wanted to die at the scene where people were impressed by the heroes reciting 80's trivia to the point of cheering and being in awe.

[@ldrcherrycola9337]

I wanted to like this movie because my brother in-law liked it. But the zero gravity dance scene where Artemis flows between wayed's legs made me so uncomfortable and their relationship going forward was so pandering to him and beneficial for him.

[@sharpscharnier1905]

Literal only thing I remember from this movie was it treating the girl with a birthmark on her face like she was the fucking elephant man when it was her only physical "flaw". Everything else about her fit hollywood love interest standards but LOOK SHE HAS A PINK BIT ON HER FACE! Also you're so right about new horizons, very based.

[@thac0twenty377]

I dated a girl with a small facial birth mark and she was so self conscious of it. No one else ever saw it as a flaw but to her it was a huge block to her self esteem. Not that Trday Pkayer One isn't insanely poorly handled...

[@Zanyotaku]

Oh thank goodness I HATE this movie. Felt like interacting with a terminally online person who was trying to explain why I’m not a real gamer bc I don’t play their personal favorite xyz shooter game. As a film. Felt like this movie would crawl into my DMs to ask me for feet pics and then insult my taste in other movies or games for not being nerd cred enough or something insane. This movie would follow me around a convention hall asking why my socks weren’t the right shade of yellow for my cosplay. Toxic, entitled, annoying, and irrelevant. Grabs some popcorn and sits back. Any roast of this movie is fine by my book. It’s just awful and actually had the distinction of making me feel gross and uncomfortable watching it.

[@gontear3377]

Just a point, why would it matter if Artemis were a 40-year-old dude? Is their trustworthiness reliant on the fact that they choose a gender for their virtual avatar that conforms with theirs in real life? Or, in a more sinister perspective, is their value as an ally anchored to their eligibility to be an object of attraction to Wade?

[@electricfishfan7159]

Because Wade’s penisfeels would be hurt. But you see, he’s a Good Man, because his merciful and loving penisfeels _aren’t_ hurt by women with minor “physical flaws” as long as they are otherwise exactly how he wants them to be in mind and body.

[@dinonerd1517]

This actually comes up in the book, he wants to make sure she isn’t “one of those people who just think they’re girls”. The fact I liked this book once makes me so frustrated in myself

[@TaShoelace]

In regards to H: I'm a nonbinary person who plays games, and I actually use a voice changer when talking online. Dual purpose, this makes my voice into something that matches how I feel a bit better, but also so people are more likely to assume I'm a guy which is more comfortable for me than people assuming I'm a woman even if they're both wrong. I don't particularly hide this fact, my friends know, but it just makes being in online spaces more comfortable and casual with people I'm going to talk to once in a round of Valorant or something. That all being said, from I'm sitting with that experience, H hiding her gender (I can't really speak on race) from someone who's supposed to be her close friend is... unintentionally telling? Like I've had a couple of situations where I've got into a bit of an acquaintanceship with people online and the voice changer thing hasn't come up and they've said something or there's just been a vibe where I've felt like well, I'm never going to let these people know because I would be suddenly unsafe. Usually I don't stick around with those people long enough to be friends with them, but with experiences like that I read H as thinking Wade's PROBABLY decently sexist, even though I know the writer didn't intend this because Wade is a super uber perfect nice guy who doesn't judge like that. Anyway, that's my two cents based on my own experiences.

[@MertKayKay]

Very interesting, thanks so much for sharing! A lot of non-binary folk have said similar things, I imagine it takes away a lot of the legwork to be obscure about those details in a world where personal details are so gendered and people are so quick to assume he/she pronouns. Makes a lot of sense to me that you'd take that step, but it's also extra illuminating to make that note on Aech too - to not even lower that guard with Wade is pretty telling about their relationship

[@marocat4749]

I mean i guess ache would told him if se trusted him not tobe awful, interesting.

[@MrPooleish]

I could be way off, but The Oasis sounds an awful lot like the Web 3.0 that Crypto-Bros push. Everything is monetized, everything requires a buy-in, massive risks of total loss.

[@battlion507]

And unfortunately like how scammers were influenced by Wolf of Wall Street, Crypto/tech Bros were influenced by Snowcrash, The Matrix and this (Ready Player One). It's simply: Learning the wrong lesson. Makes sense since the source material of both of these works were from amoral, awful, greedy, and straight up corrupt people.

[@MrPooleish]

@@battlion507 a classic case of 'We're excited to reveal we've created The Torment Nexus from beloved novel FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T CREATE THE TORMENT NEXUS'

[@atocanboi409]

how you feel about the "you're just not the target audience" argument is the same way I feel about the "it's for kids" argument. I don't give a shit that it was written for kids, that's not an excuse for it to be poorly written. the problem is people think that if you criticize something, you think that it's 100% all bad and no one should be allowed to enjoy it.

[@MertKayKay]

Absolutely agree!!

[@marocat4749]

And youdont do references only vor referencesske.They should be thereadditionalorgnic somewhere.And youdont need to know but good if. Honetly a lot kids mdi do ht with duult refereces making it more a family movies.its alsohow youdo references.Not intrusiv, or looking down.

[@ragingdevi]

I once dated a guy who said that Rwady Player One saved him... I had no idea how bad the book/movie was at the time but ohhhh my god, learning afterward? His behavior definitely tracked 🙄

[@966aAad]

How did it saved (!) him? Can you tell what his story was? It seems too bizarre to be true but also too bizarre to make up

[@electricfishfan7159]

Sister, I hope you’ve earned more self-respect since then. Anyone seeing himself in this book who’s okay with that doesn’t deserve to have sex outside of VR.

[@CalvinChikelue]

On the point about masking, as someone at the intersection of being pansexual & black, I have concealed parts of myself on & offline to simply get by without like you mentioned giving the chance for someone to be weird about aspects of myself. Like unless I’m explicitly asked on a forum or in a chat I wouldn’t volunteer my race or sexuality unless necessary. And even in real life despite putting pansexual in my dating profile, if I meet someone out & about, unless I’m interested in furthering a relationship beyond physical, I might not mention it due to the stigma/misconceptions that some people believe that bi/pan people are more likely to have an infidelity. In the realm of games & representing myself online, if I make an avatar I usually would indeed make them look exactly like me if possible & in a world where a place like the Oasis, I likely would still do the same even if it opened the door to being discriminated virtually but I completely understand why a person like Helen would make the choice to just use a white male or Orc avatar. It reminds me of how in the real world too often, résumés where people put a name that could explicitly be interpreted as African-American or otherwise non-Caucasian would be discarded or ignored more often than something more ambiguous. Helen’s choice is essentially the most extreme avenue of avoiding that without the real life burden of changing your name or lying about your name to obfuscate your ethnicity.

[@YamiHoOu]

I remember people sharing excerpts of the book to show how bad it was and fans of the book being upset and those excerpts were "just a bad part taken from an otherwise good book". But then I saw more of the book and yikes. It was painful, so hearing that movie drops some of the potentially interesting part of the book is even more assurance to never watch this movie.

[@MertKayKay]

Haha I love that, "it's not reflective of the full novel!" and then it turns out to be reflective of the full novel, and the sequel, and the movie

[@apollolewis]

As someone who can’t play MMOs without getting overwhelmed and panic over all the people online the oasis is my nightmare.

[@parkerpayne4250]

Yes, 13 reasons why definitely deserves this kind of video. You cannot stop here

[@MertKayKay]

Definitely just a dreadful series hehe

[@cadoized]

"my general issue with this film is that its pretty cringe" put that on the box cover. awesome video as usual, cannot wait to see you tear into 13 reasons also the googling vulpix bit- i had the exact same experience with lucario 😭

[@MertKayKay]

Oh man the second Nintendo released Lucario into the world, it was done for. Same as with Gardevoir!

[@definitelyhooman7939]

I distinctly remember watching this in theatres. I was with my best friend, and neither of us had read the original book so we had no idea what we were in for. I remember my heart sinking as soon as Wade put on the VR headset as I realised - oh shit, I gotta sit here for another two hours. I had to stop myself from audbily laughing when the "ugly, disfigured" love interest was revealed. At least this video came out of such a creatively bankrupt movie, so that's something. I'm glad I'm not alone in my hate! If you wanted to talk about other horrible movies you felt passionate about, I would love to watch. You have a way of remaining critical, hilarious, and distinctive all at once, so if you ever wanted to experiment or branch out, I'd be there for it :)

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Hooman! I love looking at terrible movies etc., so maybe we'll have to dig out some more :D

[@bbrbbr-on2gd]

The real tragedy is a waste of such a good title for something, Ready Player One. It conjures so many images to the mind if you are a gamer, that it feels wasted here. The story could be anything, but we got this instead.

[@natecorbin5216]

Doing my part to appease the algorithm. One thing that occurred to me after my previous comments: I'd be surprised if anyone involved with the making of this film was actually a gamer or had positive feelings toward someone in their life who was a gamer. And I should probably make clear that I use "gamer" here in the "someone who is enthusiastic about playing video games" sense, not in the embattled political sense. This whole movie feels like it was done by the same kind of executive who really, REALLY wants microtransactions in every game and every game should be a service -- the exact same archetype as the bad guy who may or may not have been based on the Activision and/or Ubisoft CEO. I guess I'm saying it's dumb, soulless, corporate drivel shat out by the same type of mind that thinks calling something "Gamer Fuel" will make it profitable because HELLO MY FELLOW GAMERZ UP WITH SMART FRIDGE SKYRIM AMIRIGHT. Anyway, great work. Cheers.

[@noem.7430]

about the gamer girlfriend you said, my boyfriend was fighting with me over a week because he thinks that i steal his kills on apex, when in reality he is the one that always follow me to steal my loot, so that part about wanting a "gamer girlfriend" that never challanges them was very cathartic to me. THANK YOU

[@MertKayKay]

Noe tell him to get good, how dare he >:(

[@noem.7430]

@@MertKayKay hahaha i will, thank you!

[@arimon1474]

Also when it comes to H being an orc, it's the exact opposite of her book version being a white man. Orcs in media are usually violent, stupid, and loud. At least in DnD, they are probably one of the most disliked races (in game/lore not by irl people) and when it comes to racism in fantasy settings, they are treated the worst. Not to mention that in a lot of media (like lord of the rings) Orcs are shown to have darker skin. So they really went from her being a white man to have white man privilege in game vs real life, to her having the exact same stereotypes placed on her from game to real life. Like, it's borderline racist that they made a black woman an orc bc I know there's some controversy there, but I haven't looked into it fully. And alt-right people suck. Understatement of the century, I know. Most things that get taken out of a story or censored is because of that whole group. This isn't the first time a story has gotten worse bc of the alt right and yet they blame it an all those damn 'sjws' and 'liberals'. like ok sir. As if I'm the one that cries when two men have romantic tension on screen and have a hissy fit when an opinion i dont like is presented to me. sure.

[@yeetneat]

Both the left and right have braindead extremist. I've seen plenty of people loose their shit when a character they liked wasn't gay, or try and demand that something they don't like is removed. (Like Velma calling the cops in multiverse getting removed after people complained) People are not a hive mind, and not everyone in a group are all crybabies that hate differing opinions. This whole "My side good other side bad" mentality is not helping anyone find a common ground. Edit: I'd like to also point you to this KZbinr who made a solid video to the whole orc = racist (which is made by a black woman btw) m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpKlmWOXra6hebs

[@treevsy]

The oasis is unrealistic. Are you meaning to tell me that furry avatars aren't everywhere.

[@SofaSlayer]

not a single giant dick

[@maxlondon1738]

I know you probably won't see this, but thank you for covering this movie. This isn't because of a mutual hatred or anything. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I probably won't even watch this video, but the thumbnail and mention of the movie reminded me of seeing this movie with my grandpa when it came out. He died a few days ago, so being reminded of that memory is nice, even though it hurts.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww Max my condolences! :(

[@fullmusicbard2591]

this is one of my favorite comfort reviews because it lets me relive my hatred of this film without having to personally remember all the bullshit that happens in it.

[@joshuamoore8560]

The reason why I couldn't get into this movie or book is the same reason I couldn't get into Stranger Things: I'm 41 years old, the 80s were something I lived through. I am therefore now old enough to have younger people (or in this case, Spielberg) dig up the things I once loved as a child, dust them off and thrust them in my face while screaming: "who wants to be YOUNG AGAIN?! YOU BUY IT! YOU BUY IT!" It just strikes me as unseemly.

[@richardjohnson8991]

The relationship we have with online interactions and it's "anonymity" is entirely too detached and toxic for real world relations. 99% of toxic attitudes online would never act the way they do so guiltlessly online. Seriously just be kinder to one another online and off

[@noahquilantan1061]

When we say "in real life" This is a lie to protect us It is all real It is all real life

[@jenh101]

When it comes to books turned into movies, I agree with the point cinemasins always make. Reading the book should never be a prerequisite for understanding or enjoying the movie. It should be able to stand alone. It just seems like an odd idea, like there’s research you have to do in advance in order to enjoy the film properly. As always, I’m happy to watch you tear a hole in all types of media. There’s a lot of good stuff in this video, it’s entertaining, thoughtful and well considered, as they always are but my favourite quote has got to be ‘I’ll summarise and explain why this film can suck my balls’. You have deadpan delivery mastered.

[@JChamberlain7]

Here to tell you that I faked being a girl online for 3 years. So far as using my girlfriend at the time's picture and voice on one occasion. This was before voice chat was a common thing. It was an incredibly eye opening experience in the end. You really learn how other guys treat women in private for example. I didn't even do this for a reason. I just had a female avatar and leaned into it and it became my online identity. I learned when I left that MMO that I wasn't the only one that was doing that either. Another guy that I had known on the game for years revealed himself after doing a very similar persona for years. So H's portrayal here, is a more real person than I think anyone realizes. People do go through lengths to conceal who they are and not just women.

[@randomnerd3402]

Patrick Bateman daily routine with extra steps? Minus the torturing of women and racially targeted murders of course. Sorry this is an awful joke.

[@krrr.4902]

1:09:05 I'm in the older demographic and while it's not uncommon to find people my age online, in my personal life I have always struggled to find people near me with similar interests so I don't get to share much of it "irl". The days where being gay and geeky was a social death sentence are almost over but there are still hostile environments that we can't escape. Since my first day online I enjoyed FREEDOM from identity, social media has always baffled me because I can't fully comprehend the appeal to broadcast oneself since anonymity has allowed me to erase the target on my back. I can enjoy neutral interactions without any baggage, it's wonderful. I do have a fulfilling life so I don't need further gratification from the internet and maybe that's why I don't usually share personal information to feel validated. .... what a messy paragraph, I'm sorry my thoughts aren't more succinct.

[@fappylp2574]

I bet the studio storyboarded the whole movie with all the background characters in the oasis just blank with a YCH note and let IP holders bid on everything ^^

[@bubblegumcrab]

I enjoyed the movie with unbridled joy at every reference I understood. The moment I left the theater, I realized it was garbage and I hated it. Its got this burning place in my mind where its like "oh ew that was a thing."

[@MertKayKay]

I do that so much, I'm so glad it's not just me! Not with this film, but so often I'll watch something through like "awesome", then as soon as it's done I'm like "wow that was not awesome"

[@bubblegumcrab]

@@MertKayKay thats how I felt about Infinity War and End Game. I got home and was like... "man. That was meh"

[@MertKayKay]

Not me crying in the cinema with the emotion of it and then going home like "that was fine"

[@bubblegumcrab]

@@MertKayKay LITERALLY ME We are kindred spirits

[@guggelguggel7491]

Yes. God. I can watch practically anything in cinema and be swept up in the spectacle, but then immediately forgetting whatever I just saw when getting home, and when thinking about the movie rather than the experience think, "it was meh.".

[@amharbinger]

The fact you can talk about adult content including a Vulpix and keep it interesting and engaging is a credit to your writing and speaking skills. Well done.

[@MertKayKay]

Harbinger your presence in my comment section is actually a day brightener, thank you 🥰

[@josef-ralfdwerlkotte8333]

​@@MertKayKayim late but. Du you still have the picture?🤫

[@phantasmrain]

Was a great video! I really liked the action and effects, but my goodness I had so many issues with the writing and themes. The Iron Giant continues to be butchered by business executives in that new MultiVersus game. The Giant was a living weapon taught the value of life and peace, but has now been cursed into an existence where he must always be a violent walking gun; the fate the Giant and his human friend fought so hard to avoid. In Multi he even has the Superman S on his chest just to make it even more messed up. Samantha portrays herself as being a clone of Quasimodo, but is a gorgeous supermodel with a little bit of strawberry jam on her face. I was expecting Samantha to be hooked up to a machine with horrific injuries over her body with how she bigs up how hideous she says she is. The final 20 seconds annoyed me most of all. Wade, now a mega billionaire with a supermodel girlfriend, tells us we need to stop using the Oasis and live in the real world; a poverty-ruined polluted wasteland where people are starving and suffering every day. Wade was sleeping on the washing machine for goodness sake! And despite Wade telling people to live in the real world every single thing good in his life came from the Oasis. He got his billions, his girlfriend, and all his friends, solely because of the Oasis. And people go to school and work in the Oasis, so by closing it 2/7 days Wade has collectively made humanity less educated and now even more stuck in poverty with fewer means to earn an income. By the end of the movie Wade is now a greater villian than IOI ever was! And why was the final challenge denying to sign an Oasis-owning contract, if immediately after he signs an Oasis-owning contract!?

[@renendell]

“…Wade is making things worse…” *Ready Player Two has entered the chat*

[@Linn628]

I'd like to add to what you said about minorities hiding or deflecting their identities online to avoid harrassment, or even just potential harrassment. I'm a trans woman who used to be pretty into online FPS games and other team-focused games. When I came out I quickly dropped out of these games and started avoiding voice chats even though I prefer it a lot more than text. Presenting as a woman online with a non-passing voice is an invitation for harrassment and I've seen a lot of casual bigotry and hate in general game chats. I've been very cautious and deflective about my identity and have avoided most of the bad stuff through just not engaging in online spaces, but a few people I know have experienced that and I have no desire to go through the same bs.

[@user-nw1je1ur6t]

This movie is, like, so contradictory that its hard to even think about it in a coherent way, talking about it feels like trying to explain a headache to a headless person

[@CaptainVincentRiley]

Honestly I think you're giving the book more credit than it deserves. While the bit about H is in there, it really boils down to maybe one page dropping the exposition on the reader. Other than that you get the feeling that H and Artemis are the only two women allowed to play videogames because they passed the gatekeeping test. Even the relationship building between Artemis and Wade is basically summarized in half a page, just so he can drop on her how much he loves her now. The main bits of the book are used to fanboy about Halliday and all his special interests and how everyone who's not interested in exactly the same things is totally lame and can't hang out with the cool nerds. Wade's character development is also exhausted in him getting getting rich and him getting into shape so he can play the game with more energy. Apart from that he is so cool and knows everything he needs to know for 90% of the quests. It's Gatekeeping: The Book. And the Oasis is even shittier than it is in the film, because travelling between planets is locked behind a paywall. Wade, being poor, is therefore stuck on his school planet unless H is charitable enough to take him along on a quest. He's just lucky that the first easter egg is hidden on his school planet. Honestly, watching this video was really carthartic for me, there is hardly a book-movie-combo I hate more than this one. I chose to read Ready Player One for a University project, so throwing it in the trashcan was not an option...

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks for the perspective on the book Riley! Since I hadn't read it I didn't want to write it off and tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. A lot of the comments didn't particularly appreciate the book though, so I think maybe I should have been more critical :')

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

I do a kind of Jekyll and Hyde thing with my online presence. I use one version of me as “me,” which I present in the same way I present myself irl, to the point I can use my accounts to speak to employers and things. The other accounts are completely untraceable back to me, with different gender expression, sexualities, hobbies, personal beliefs, and all other aspects of me that I cannot really bring into my daily life. It’s very liberating, and deeply uncomfortable for me to address. I jokingly call it Victorian Man Syndrome, but it really is… I’m ending this comment now.

[@TheStrangeEli]

I've read the book and saw the movie, and regardless of what I think, I fully forgot H's avatar was a white man in the book, but both options have their own subtext that I'm sure Ernest Cline and the team who made the movie didn't intend. Certainly portraying yourself as white can grant yourself safety in the Oasis, but there are stories where this kind of self-representation is meant to imply some kind of yet-investigated internal racism, especially in a world where H may not see a lot of positive POC representation that isn't a IP character. In the movies case, orcs have had a racist history in culture, often being dark-skinned and "born dumb and violent" creatures that need to be "tamed" or are sometimes sold for slavery. Even as people have intentionally combated that, orcs are still used in media in ways that points to audience and says "you know what were implying here, right?" So choosing to portray H as an orc definitely... raises an eyebrow, however I do have some POC friends who have played orcs in video games and TTRPGs FOR this reason, so it's not out of question that she portrayed herself this way. And finally, I find it most interesting that H portrays herself as a man in both versions because of the way that trans people will often play the gender they associate with internally, even before they come out. And certainly, her character is meant to exist as the example of how people will portray themselves completely differently online, and sometimes for safety, but she's the ONLY character to play as a gender different that she was born as. Because of this, I do totally think there's a valid reading in looking at her as a trans character. Anyways, excellent video!

[@MertKayKay]

Yes, you've really fleshed out that whole debate about Aech and her avatars! I found a few articles about the origins of orcs in literature (mainly fleshing out from what Tolkein considered to be 'gross' and like, less civilised), but like you said, the general attitude towards orcs and their representation has changed, and some POC will play orcs for this reason, so it felt needless to go into the detail about it. As for a potential trans character, I do agree; there are so many implicit readings of Aech and her portrayal that branch out in so many different ways. Thanks for watching :D

[@unimportant246]

I honestly wish that she actually got to pick the avatar by showing that she picked it Or mentioning that she picked it Or say anything about that she picked it All the baked in metaphors about sexism, racism or her being possibly trans would be so much clearer and intentional Bc the way that it stands its just uncritically copying existing tropes and copying the flaws with it

[@TheNumnutRandomness]

Cutting from Artemis to Wade going like, "For the record, I'm not disappointed," made me let out the loudest guffaw. Like, you were afraid of disappointing... him? I understand that a lot of teen girls are socialized from a young age to by hyper critical of their looks, but like- c'mon.

[@sugoistalin7809]

I was in prison for 10 months a few years ago and my co-pilot (what we call cellmate) wanted to watch this film and like 20 minutes in, I was debating whether I should stop paying for the TV so they'd take it away.

[@ptlemon1101]

I dislike Ready Player One for several reasons: -removed the social commentary like you said, one of the few actual interesting things the book did with the black lesbian girl; -way too fanfic for me with references don't make sense: Overwatch was out for 2 years and Tracer already gets a cameo when there way more iconic legacy characters? Iron Giant kicking ass? Like, what? -the fact that they keep making bland protagonists that are abused trope is becoming borderline offensive. I always imagine writers thinking like "This guy is a loser with not personality, right? You must relate this, don't you? You fucking loser." No dude, I don't. I'm sure that are people that have bad family situations but I feel like it's never handed well; -Wade gets everything way too easily for being a nerd. Sure, being a nerd is important in the context of the movie but he gets crazy rich for it and a girlfriend just because of that? Is he the only nerd in the world? -Hollywood making a character that's supposed to be ugly just midly less attractive that usual trope. I was expecting Artemis to actually be ugly but when I saw she was a very normal looking girl, attractive even, with a red spot, I bursted laughing. No way lmao. And of course, Wade manages to seduce her by the sheer power of not leaving her alone. This is not how relationships work irl. People aren't suddenly gonna start dating depending how long are you willing to stalk and annoy them. Pacific Rim and Rogue One did it so well by making the main male lead and main female lead just be friends instead of being madly in love after knowing each other for 2 days. I don't know why more movies don't do it. Even I started doing on my own in my stories when I was 14. Like, people just don't fall in love so soon, even when they're already dating; -the movies just feels hypocritical. it's supposed to be a fight against big corporation and capitalism but the whole movie was just "Capitalism: The Movie" from the references, the product placement shots, the music, etc. I just hate when big companies do movies like this and people not seeing anything wrong. They're marketing their "rebellion" to keep them entertained instead of actually doing something. Nothing encapsulates this better than the Che Guevaras shirts kekw. I just hate media like this. I have more problems with it but this is what I can think of on top of my head. Anyway, great vid and commentary. Waiting for more. Cheers!

[@GabyGeorge1996]

Just like how “The Last Airbender” turned Zuko’s facial scar-a scar which canonically is a 2nd/3rd degree burn that takes up half his face-into something that more closely resembles a mildly irritated rash.

[@FroggiePebbles]

Lots of things that drove me nuts in this movie and the book is that, the book was released in 2011 and tried to be all cool with subverting expectations. 'the nerd is cool actually!!! You are wrong about bullying them!!! He's the hero!' when... The nerd being the butt of the joke began fading out in 2005... Like... You're not defying any expectations. My dad was hyped for this movie and we went to the theatre for it and I sat there, every now and then breathing slightly out of my nose going 'oh I know what that's from!' and that was the biggest joy I got from the film.

[@snowpanther7076]

I never understood the bullying the nerd thing to begin with considering that hot nerd is my type

[@TooSkramz]

"I've never seen an Atari in real life" I'm 28 and this made me feel absolutely decrepit

[@MertKayKay]

The two year difference becomes an impassable gulf, tell me the secrets of your generation oh wise one

[@local_cryptid]

If it makes you feel better, Im 24 and I do actually know what an atari is and have memories of owning one of the fake ones with all the games loaded onto it as a child

[@sillyd0g]

it's fucking hilarious that wade deciding to close up shop on tuesdays and thursdays gets the big impactful final line of the movie and not the fact that he also perma-banned the company that was using real, actual, irl slave labor to cheat in a video game.

[@bobbingfortoast1912]

The poem "Nerd P*** Auteur" by the author has recently been doing rounds on twitter and it feels like it says a lot about him. I can't quite verbalize what it says but feels kinda like the movie in how it started with something that could be an okayish intended message if you squint just right but the implementation makes it just so so very wrong in every way possible. In terms of the book I tried reading it before the film came out and I somehow missed half the points you explored (e.g. the significance of H being a white man in game). I don't know why, it just felt kinda wrong to focus on the world building or characters - as if they were there just to ferry you between bits of nerd trivia. Not saying it's good or anything - just thought it a bit interesting. Also the side eye at 40:18 killed me.

[@notuslethe]

This was a great video, Mert! You broke down all the issues I had with Ready Player One perfectly well and with your signature humor. When you started talking about Kira's role in the story and how often women/romance/love, I was struck by the line in the film "Kira is the Rosebud of the story." Rosebud is a fucking sled. It's' an object - and that's the level of depth and complexity our hero (Halliday) ascribes to his business partner's wife. The fact that the film never delves into the sheer creepiness of that (the same way the Snape story doesn't) really emphasizes the issues that you bring up about how women are treated in gaming and in this movie in particular. Women, love interests, are a "prize" and trying to build them beyond that is wasteful - why *wouldn't* they want to be with the hero? why *wouldn't* they undermine all of their own desires to be with the Perfect Gamer? Along with the... myriad other problems with this film, the way it sorta portrays that this veneration of Kira is... romantic? wholesome? in a way that I think emphasizes how much men of a certain sort don't understand why its so egregious or painful. As always, loved the video, and I can't wait for your brutal takedown of the abomination that is 13 reasons why.

[@MertKayKay]

Notus it's such a pleasure to get a comment like this and I'm so happy you enjoyed the video! I knew Rosebud was a Citizen Kane reference but I had no idea it was a SLED. That's the most inanimate of all objects 🤣 poor Kira!

[@noahquilantan1061]

@@MertKayKay it's supposed to represent the last time Kane felt happy and free before being wrung through the industry that he eventually ruled. The sled is less of an object in ck than kira is in rpo

[@Redem10]

Part of me wondered a bit if there was any possiblity if in some earlier plan Aech was meant to be the love interest over Art3mis because "the best friend is secretly in love with protaognist, while the protagonist is pinning for the a shallow pretty girl" is a pretty common 80 tropes, but Ernest Cline eventually decided against (cause Wade pretty much has get everything he wants) and the only way he found to have Aech not being a romantic option is to have her completly unattracted to male.

[@nont18411]

39:36 “For the record, I’m not disappointed.” What give him the right to be “disappointed” or “not disappointed” in someone else’s body?

[@StephenYuan]

Quinton Reviews has a pretty funny takedown of the book. It's a good supplement to this video. Incidentally, the main problem with this movie is that it's made by a bunch of old people who don't like or understand video games for people who don't like or understand video games. Inauthentic to anyone who plays, which in not too much time will be everyone. The issues with Wade's "creepy" behavior are symptomatic of this. Older audiences except a male protagonist behaving this way, while the young do not.

[@ant3t3]

Somebody would have gone backwards. In 5 years? Seriously? Nobody wanted to see what was behind the start? Unrealistic.

[@Inquisiteur007]

I've always hated this movie because of the nerd nostalgia it tries to play into and I'm interested to see what your take on this is, have you thought about doing a video on the movie Scot Pilgrim against the world? From everything I've read the comics might be good but the movie was just a complete power fantasy imo.

[@MertKayKay]

Weirdly I didn't mind Scott Pilgrim but I also didn't really see any references I recognised, so it just became a strangely stylised film for me 🤔 was there anything about the film you enjoyed or was it a complete no go for you?

[@bubblegumcrab]

Scott Pilgrim is an odd film. Its fun and ridiculous, and it's meant to be insane, so it's acceptable. Still cringey. But it understands it's cringey

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

The Cringe is on purpose in Scott Pilgrim, as the original ending they decided to swap out last minute for dumb reasons can attest to.

[@jamwrightiam]

20:52 is such an extremely good observation about the common underdog trope and damn you finally put it to words that i could never pull off

[@MertKayKay]

It's bugged me for so long! :'D

[@cheriseminjares2096]

Samantha's real-life reveal in the book is made even worse when-treasure that he is- Wade marvels at her birthmark and his next thought (after graciously NOT being disappointed, such a good lad) is that, 'In fact, it made her even more beautiful.' God's gift to insecure women everywhere, truly.

[@SchulzEricT]

That and her rubenesque figure.

[@milowolfface9392]

Ohhhhh...well it's been nice knowing you. The Ready Player 1 fans are very well known for being reasonable. We shall let your next of kin know that you fought hard.

[@MertKayKay]

Please give my brother my "I LOVE MILFS" t-shirt

[@themrplgthemrplg2872]

@@MertKayKay If wouldn’t wear that to your funeral then he isn’t a real brother.

[@KingRidley]

Gamergate was absolutely fascinating to watch in the same way that a natural disaster would be. I used to hang out around the communities where this stuff was happening, and it was one of the most surreal and confusing experiences of my life (and a huge motivator of why I stopped going to those communities). The fact that I was even remotely near the epicenter of everything creates this need in me to, like, reconcile what I saw with what other people experienced. What I remember is that the whole thing started because of something that should never have made it into the public light, and industry shenanigans that should have just been a scandal. From what I saw, Gamergate started with the story that a woman was using sexual influence to manipulate review scores, and it exploded from there into everything that this video is talking about. A couple of big gaming publications actually did get caught collaborating to decide who would get press and who wouldn't. Most of the huge platforms did end up creating new standards of transparency during this time as well, such as disclosing any connection between a developer and a reviewer. So that was one thing. But at the same time as this little scandal was happening, hundreds or thousands of people were getting really aggressively harassed and threatened by the alt-right, because this wasn't just about bad journalism anymore. It was apparently about kicking people out of the hobby completely. It was thousands of people coming out of nowhere saying "this isn't just about unprofessional journalists, we're defending against an organized movement of feminazis and social justice warriors. This is the first battle for democracy, because they want to censor artwork and force their views on us, and it starts somewhere small like videogames." Like seriously, they would say that everyone on twitter telling feminists to die was 'fighting for democracy.' I hear experiences like MertKayKay's and she makes a great point about how this video was probably influenced by that entire culture war, how it is idolizing the gatekeeping and elitism that is still present in gaming, and our larger culture, today. I didn't want to admit it at first but I think she really is right. This movie doesn't feel like it reflects ANYTHING about what I've seen gaming culture try to shift towards in recent years, it's just stuck in that mindset when people would quiz each other about trivia as a way to prove themselves instead of just for fun. But at the same time it's going "No look this stuff is for everyone, we all love each other and we're such good friends" without showing anything to back that up. It makes me think about how there isn't just one hobby here, but a lot of parallel spaces that all kind of share the same hobby without necessarily overlapping. I want to think that we're all good buddies and we all share the same hobby and that makes all of us friends, except that's kind of a privilege for me to think like that because apparently that's not what everyone else is going through. Very few people get weird about my engagement with gaming, almost no one is going to chase me down online to threaten me. I don't ever have to worry that a conversation is going to result in a dangerous, imagined relationship between myself and another person, waiting to explode one day like an invisible land mine when I say the wrong thing to someone. As hard as it is for me to listen to sometimes, I still want to thank MertKayKay for sharing those experiences, and I feel terrible that they happen. I honestly take the time to try to internalize those kind of stories and experiences to try and reinforce empathy in myself. I want to see myself as being a safe person to talk to, but it takes work to be that kind of person. And part of that process is also, occasionally, writing a freaking blog post into a youtube comment section. It helps me reexamine my own experiences and try to actually remain aware of what other people go through. Thank you MertKayKay. Thus concludes my blog post/diary entry.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww hey Ridley! Glad you enjoyed the video and that it resonated with you on various levels :D I'm glad you appreciated the examination of Gamergate too! It felt so weirdly relevant to this film.

[@maxreis9534]

Imagine being a stan for an advertisement clip that was stretched out to a feature film.

[@iamjustkiwi]

Man, that story about the Vulpix brought back some harsh memories of the early internet like steak and cheese...it's not like today's internet is any less of a deplorable pit of filth but at least now you stumble across it by accident WAY less. Thank goodness.

[@warlordofbritannia]

I remember looking up Shrek when I was maybe 9

[@emilycrow8278]

speaking of being a millennial and on the internet while being a kid. KZbin used to be a chaos land. I remember looking up naruto amvs and finding a video of a guy nailing his... appendage, to a two by four. There was no laws and even less safety back then.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh my god that is horrifying 🤣🤣

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

People in Venezuela reverted to using Runescape currency at one point because their own national currency was so unreliable as to be near-useless.

[@gramboni0624]

The whole "Zeroing Out" thing irl would mean that you would literally have thousands of people just offering to be hired to walk around massacring high level players.

[@alexroy5854]

Holy shit, imagine if this movie actually used the messages of the 80's movies and pop culture it references instead of just miming the stuff?

[@luiseduardo4748]

I appreaciate you calling it your most hated movie of all time instead of the worst movie of all time

[@MertKayKay]

Yeah this is all super opinion based of course :D I'm sure there's worse out there haha

[@derekneaz-nibur407]

Well done as usual Mert!! I had always seen this movie as young adult, live action Wreck-It Ralph, but in a really bad way. I remember distinctly that it came out while I was working at an "alternative boarding school," that was mostly made up of 16-19 year old boys who were sent there because their parents thought that they gamed too much. And they fucking loved this movie! That was my first indication that it wouldn't be something that I would like. So, now I feel like I've consumed as much of this movie I need to, Mert again saves me from media that I probably would hate!! Btw: I'm really looking forward to that 13 reasons vid, you know how much I hate it's existence. If you need any assistance with the psycho-jargon, I'm happy to help with my very expensive expertise.

[@MertKayKay]

I want you to bill me for EVERY GRAIN OF INFORMATION, indirect or otherwise

[@derekneaz-nibur407]

@@MertKayKay I love charging people for talking to me!!

[@Donkeysauren]

This was absolutely fantastic, and I very much look forward to your further endeavors in branching out! my favorite video of yours, I think

[@MertKayKay]

Chroma I am really happy to hear it! Thank you so much

[@CruelestChris]

Hearing a 26 year old address an Atari like it's some kind of mythical animal makes me feel old.

[@MertKayKay]

Don't worry, I get to watch my 19 year old coworker refer to the PS3 as "the console of my childhood"

[@izznt]

No matter how many times any of your videos come on in my sleep playlist, with the way my brain works, ill still like, hear / take in something new, and/or i forget hearing it and its like those movies you can watch again and notice something new. I think that speaks both to your talent, and my apparently questionable mental health . But yeah you reminded about the time when i was like 14, i tried to google about acne, and if one can be allergic to pus - changed. Im changed. I was changed then.

[@dusksentry5836]

It's so annoying that the movie about a giant video game has a really bad game conscept. It wouldve been so close to saved though if they spent a few seconds out of the 80s referencing budget to explain that in some places you just respawn, but in others you zero out Edit: that wouldn't fix that it's a very poorly managed fusion of a vr chat style social thing, and outdated boomers idea of what an mmo is. This game is just awful on a conceptual level

[@NebLleb]

The virgin Ready Player One -People saving the day by playing videogames - WEAKSAUCE -Focuses on references and effects rather than character growth -Is completely forgettable barring a few aspects -Cops out tries to push a message about how "reality is the only thing that's real" after spending the entire film glorifying a fictitious VR metaverse THE CHAD! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! -Does its titular character justice by rightfully portraying him as a lovable, smart, snarky speedster who goes on his own character journey by accepting Tim as his friend -Features fantastic performances by Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey and James Marsden -Manages to make gameplay mechanics from the series into ACTUAL PLOT POINTS -Tons of memorable moments -Isn't even pretending to be something it isn't and instead puts effort into being the best it can be -Has a sequel which is meant to also be good -"Speed Me Up"

[@midnightcas9995]

Just recently subbed but honestly you’ve got my exact style of video I love. Long video game essays! Would you ever do Dragon Age? Or Mass Effect?

[@MertKayKay]

Aww Cas I'm super happy to hear it! And I've never played either of those franchises but I'd honestly love to cover them one day, I know they're GOATs in gaming

[@NightChildBarbie]

@@MertKayKay I'm 28, and had to play the entirety of Mass Effect a couple of months ago, after loosing a bet. And I'm shocked at how surprisingly good it is. So I highly recommend it, even if you know nothing about it and don't like space shooters (like I do)

[@toolatetothestory]

@@MertKayKay Dragon Age is a mixed bag. And I'm not saying that in a bad way, but the three games are quite different and during my time in the fandom, I think everyone has one game they love and one game they hate of the three xD Or at least, has both strong positive and negative opinions about them. Mass Effect is more consistent (aside from the ending, yeah, everyone harps on about that, everyone prefers to ignore it really xD), if you want just one solid, consistent experience in tone, Mass Effect is the way to go. If you want to shake things up, go from a more disjointed experience but slightly more individual story to six bbfs (best bisexual friends) chilling in a mansion, living their lifes until it all goes to hell, a few times in a row, and rage about how Varric isn't a romance option, over to a bit more typical fantasy story, accidental "chosen one", grand adventure leading an army against evilllllll, with your gay best friend (because Dorian is the best), then Dragon Age is for you!

[@MertKayKay]

@@NightChildBarbie That's a very kind forfeit for a bet, I wish my friends were so charitable :D But I'm really glad you liked it!

[@NightChildBarbie]

@@MertKayKay they know I HATE games about space. But yeah, it was a very innocent bet which I am now glad I lost

[@sm24644]

Wait are you telling me my strategy of quizzing girls on the catch rate of Pokemon is not a sound strategy for dating?!?!

[@sammakesmusic1]

All the scenes where the people where running in the streets wearing VR headsets was so cringe... I don't like calling things cringe but it is. This entire movie is filled with cringe but those scenes were just the culmination of all the things wrong with this movie. And the people who made this movie expected us to think those scenes were cool? Yikes.

[@theQUEENofLOSERS]

Husband and I both read the book as part of a book and a movie thing his job at the time was running. Pay $25, get a copy of the book each, get a ticket to the movie, and get some swag at a pre-film, book club style meetup. We did the same thing for The Dark Tower as well. I could wrap my head around book!Wade, but the treatment of Artemis and the changes to Aech really bothered me. I don't think they are as well known, but there are actually two books after The Giver, following two other characters, building in changes from previous parts of each story. There is a character with a similar skin condition to Artemis in the last one, I believe, and I think even though the character in that book ends up making villainous choices, he is given more sympathy and more understanding by the story than "I'm not disappointed" can ever express. I also cannot get over the Iron Giant being a weapon.

[@RobotDinosaur]

“Normalizing child free weddings” 😂😂 every one of your videos has a line I want framed on my wall, and that’s not even the only one in this video!

[@MertKayKay]

Aww Robot you are the cutiest B) Thank you

[@prettyevil6662000]

I have always hid my gender and sexuality going into games. I will eventually tell my close friends - the ones I trust to not make it weird when they find out I'm a woman. But during Gamergate specifically I stopped telling anyone I was a woman at all. Because there was basically no way to trust even those you considered close in that time period. A guy who seemed cool and chill could suddenly turn into a raving lunatic if he found out you were a woman doing video games and not sucking his knob. It took years after gamergate dust settled before I felt comfortable letting people who didn't know me IRL know I was a woman again. and recently the harassment seems to be picking up again but going back to the usual sexual weirdness that was pre-gamergate. I'm over 30. I'm too old to want to deal with this bullshit anymore.

[@RubbahPants]

I really just love your analysis and style of presentation, so I'm all for you exploring more content outside of just videogames

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks Rubbah!! 😁

[@UberNoodle]

After finally reading the book and then watching the movie soon after, I sent a letter of apology to my friend whom I gave a copy of the book to for their birthday.

[@AzureFenris]

All of your points are fucking perfection. Like ok, when I saw ready player one, everyone was like "that movie is incredible" Me unable to keep my trap shut goes "could have been 100× better. I swear 10 people out of that movie looked at me like I just killed their infant child, like really??? It's a movie I'm allowed to have an opinion. Also I want to touch on this Daito, this man, chose gundam. For me Gundam was my very first anime. Well Gundam Wing was, and it got me into anime so I hold alot of love for the series even series people hate (alot of people hate the gundam seed series but I actually enjoyed it for what it was, I did see the issues it had I'm not blind, but I enjoyed it) Now, my problem with this is....he chose the weakest gundam out of all the gundams he could have chosen!!! This man chose the very first gundam which is by far the weakest of them all. No one can say "well gundam was made in the 80's so-" then what about halo? Iron giant? None of those are 80's this man could have chosen the Wing gundam or the gundam double X, or the burning gundam, hell even the strike freedom gundam and completely destroyed mecha godzilla, total annihilation....but no. And that shit annoys the hell out of me. If you need a giant robot to fight a giant robot, you are going to use THE MOST POWERFUL you know and if you are going to choose a gundam well.... yea there's hundreds that are massively more powerful then the original gundam. Personally I would have either chosen the strike freedom or the wing gundam, they have powerful distance fighting abilities that outclassed mecha godzilla in both speed and power and would have torched it in under 3 minutes and those 2 extra minutes are me being generous. This movie wasn't the beat, it was...., I was actually slightly bored a few times watching it. But the utter incompetence of the choice of gundam just clinched this movie as being absolutely garbage. Cause no gundam fan is that stupid to choose the original over something stronger. Especially when the fate of something you care about is at stake.

[@Catmeowmeow_420]

25:00 me at 9 when I searched "undertail" on my school computer because I wanted a photo of sans as a drawing reference.

[@MertKayKay]

OH NO