Today I finally watched the virtual-reality-themed movie Ready Player One.
First, now that I have actually seen the movie, I am truly amazed at how accurately and painstakingly Sansar Studios was able to recreate both the Aech’s Garage and Aech’s Basement scenes from the movie. Kudos to Linden lab for doing such a fantastic job! I have been able to compare the movie and the Sansar experiences (see images below), and only now do I realize just how much work it must have taken to build these two experiences. Bravo, Linden Lab!
Second, they put an actual Infinadeck in the movie, when they showed Wade Watts walking on the VR treadmill in his van! I wrote about this omnidirectional treadmill earlier on my blog. It’s not a product available for sale yet, but the company have started a Beta Unit Testing Program for application developers. Very, very cool! I want one!!!
I thought the movie was very enjoyable and very well done (of course, Steven Spielberg is a master of his craft of movie-making). The plot was somewhat different from the science fiction novel by Ernest Cline on which it was based, but the differences made narrative sense within the film.
I laughed at all the 1980s references liberally sprinkled throughout the movie, especially at the part about the Holy Hand Grenade (from Monty Python, of course!). It’s the kind of movie you could watch several times over, just to catch all the sly references to ’80s culture.
All in all, I absolutely loved the movie.
I can recommend the Ready Player One movie (and the Ernest Cline novel upon which it is based) wholeheartedly and unreservedly. Go see it/read it!
