"Number One Player" directed by Steve Spielberg was released on March 30. As of now, 150,000 people have scored a high of 9.1.
Before seeing the movie, many people were not optimistic about "Ready Player One" and Spielberg. After all, the director’s films in the past ten years were not satisfactory, but never underestimate Spielberg. "Private Ryan", "Jaws", "Indiana Jones", "ET Alien" and other classic movie genre masters.
"Number One Player" is a movie full of 80s pop culture stalks, excellent visuals and real-world illusion issues, perhaps only Hollywood "Number One Player" Spielberg can really do it.
Easter eggs every minute
The film is adapted from Ernest Cline's novel "Ready Player One" of the same name. Ernest himself is a super senior fan of pop culture, so basically every page in the original book has a pop culture slogan.
The movie perfectly visualizes the stalks in the novel. There are more than 400 stalks in the movie. Whether you are in the second, third or fourth brush, you can find new easter eggs. What else to say, everyone brush up. And the stalks involved in the movie, from movies to games, from animation to music, whether it is a movie fan or a game fan, or an anime fan or a music fan, can be greatly satisfied in the movie.
The most creative thing is that the stalks in "Ready Player One" are definitely not just a simple tribute. In addition to appearing in the background and requiring the audience to look carefully and directly mentioned in the lines, some stalks serve the plot, such as King Kong, and That movie.
If there are too many stalks, copyright becomes a problem. The producers of "Ready Player One" and the people from the Warner Law Department spent three full years on copyright, and they talked on the phone almost every week to deal with copyright matters. Despite Spielberg's face and getting most of the stigma, there are still some copyrights that have not been obtained, such as Ultraman. So Spielberg replaced Ultraman with the "steel giant" well-known in the United States.
Interestingly, as a very important part of pop culture in the 1980s, Spielberg himself did not put a lot of his own stalks in the movie. The director said that he did not want to make a movie about his own movie. He felt that it was too narcissistic. , So he only kept a few of his own stalks directly from the original, such as the time machine in Back to the Future.
I believe that most of the fans’ favorite terrier is that movie, but Spielberg said in the interview that his favorite terrier is Brad Bird and the steel giant. "Giant", Brad Bird is a genius."
Excellent vision: Oasis World and VR
"This is not a movie about games, this is a movie about Oasis." Spielberg said.
In the movie, the players enter the world of "Oasis", become whoever they want to be, and do whatever they want. "Oasis" is their dream land. In addition to the movie, the excellent special effects of the movie also present us a dreamland. Whether it is the imaginative setting of the "oasis" or the end of the battle, it can make the audience feel the charm of film dreams. .
Spielberg once said in an interview that "Top Player" is the third most difficult movie he made, second only to "Jaws" and "Saving Private Ryan".
The special effects production process of "Ready Player One" is indeed complicated and difficult. In order to further highlight the sharp contrast between the "oasis" and the sandy real world, Spielberg filmed the latter in the movie, while the scenes in the virtual universe Digital photography is adopted. "We have to use the screen to realize the illusory world of "Oasis". This is one of the most complicated things I have ever done....There are motion capture, live action, computer animation... It's like being at the same time Make four movies." Spielberg said.
Audiences who have watched the movie will definitely be impressed by the appearance of the characters in Oasis. Most of the characters inside will be reminiscent of the characters in online games, but whether it is the expressions or actions of the characters, the details of "Number One Player" are very exquisite. .
From the overall appearance, movements, hairstyles, clothing, to the digital expression of the character's skin texture, Spielberg and the special effects production team spent a lot of energy to improve the avatar in all aspects.
Industrial Light & Magic’s visual effects director Grady Cofer said, “The development of avatars takes a lot of effort. Industrial Light & Magic entered this field a long time ago. We worked with Adam and Cassia to complete and continuously improve the prototype design of the character. . We always keep in mind that these characters are virtual but controlled by real actors."
The actors are actually in a white room during the performance. In order to make the actors perform better, Spielberg let the actors wear VR glasses. With VR glasses, the actors can experience the fantasy oasis world immersively. .
When directing, Spielberg himself also used VR glasses. “Every scene in the oasis is virtual, so they created an avatar for me, allowing me to walk through the space and watch the real scene. Once I decided how to plan the storytelling. I let the actors wear helmets and experience the scenes presented in the film. Other times, the actors work in a huge white room in an environment where many digital cameras are shooting at the same time. For any actor As far as the director is concerned, performing in a bare “scene” constructed only by imagination is a confusing task. But after putting on the helmet, we don’t need to imagine, all we have to do is remember the virtual scene The pattern is reflected in the motion capture link.” The director said in the interview.
Despite the use of advanced technology such as VR glasses, Spielberg still emphasized: "I never make movies for technology; I only use it to tell a better story. This technology helps this The movie exists, but it will disappear, so all you care about is the story and the characters."
Fable: Reality vs. Virtual
There are a lot of game stalks in "Ready Player One", and the whole movie is a process of playing the game and clearing the level. Spielberg is also a senior gamer himself. In an interview, he said that he started playing games when he was filming "Jaws".
Although the director himself is also a veteran game fan, he does not want to make a movie that only people who have played games can watch Hi. In "Ready Player One", even if you are not an experienced game fan, it doesn’t matter if you don’t get most of the game stalks in it. You can still enjoy the fun of the movie.
Because putting aside those countless easter eggs, "Ready Player One" actually has a very exquisite script and a universal story. It tells us how to tide over the difficulties through three levels, and through the final choice of the male protagonist, it explores Real and virtual problems.
If you go to the cinema for the second or more brushes, in addition to discovering more easter eggs, you will also find a lot of foreshadowings. For example, when the Oasis was introduced shortly after the opening, there were some artifacts that Dadong found that could last for 2 minutes to transform. Information is explained, so there is a super-burning transformation at the end.
The ways to crack the three levels of the game are all interpretations of universal values, and they are progressive. In the key to cracking the levels, the first level is to rely on yourself, the second level is to rely on your girlfriend, and the third level is to rely on good friends; and each level has its own theme. The first level tells you not to be bound by the rules. The second level tells you to face the real world bravely, tell you not to rush for quick success, and don't abandon your friends for the game. Enjoying the game is the most important thing. Through these three levels, the male protagonist has completed his own character arc from never forming a team at the beginning to sharing shares with friends at the end.
In the end, Spielberg dropped the theme of the entire film to the discussion of reality and illusion.
The movie shows us the future world that has become a wasteland, because people are lost in the illusory fun brought by VR and no longer solve any problems, much like our current loss in the online world, don't they? At the end of the movie, Spielberg let the actor choose to return to the real world, "because only reality is true."
It can be said that "Top Player" is a warning fable, but it is not as heavy as Planet of the Apes. More often than not, it is full of fun.
It's hard to imagine that besides Spielberg, who else can make "Ready Player One" so childish, you can feel Spielberg's passion from the movie in all directions without dead ends.
Although Spielberg has long been a godfather of Hollywood, he looks very childish from the outside, and even wears Jaws socks to attend the Oscars this year.
"Top Player" indirectly pays tribute to the 1971 movie "Happy Candy House", in which the big confectioner Willie Wonka has a line, "We're the music-makers, we're the dreamers of dreams."
I also want to send this sentence to Spielberg, "You're the movie-maker, you're the dreamer of dream." Thank you for bringing us the top audiovisual feast, thank you for allowing us to be in the cinema. Enjoy such pure happiness and childlikeness.
Okay, let’s not talk about it, I’m going out for four, friends at the cinema!
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