Steven Spielberg's Robot Chicken

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Black Mirror has attracted a lot of attention from the west now (Jodie Foster and Penn Jillette are directing episodes, Robert Downey Jr. is involved with an American adaptation of "The Entire History of You" etc.) and Spielberg loves anthologies so there ya go.

And in reality that sounds, well, shitty, but acceptable. But this ain't reality and Black Mirror ain't listed nowhere, just some shitty novel that's apparently not even out yet.

This isn't any anthology. This is all one story, with a main character whose slavish love of 80's pop culture makes him the big hero, a trillionaire, and wins the heart of his love interest.

It's been out for awhile now - the author followed it up with "Armada" aka I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW IT THE NOVEL 2, which is about a teenager in 2018 who discovers that his late father's conspiracy theory that pop culture for decades has been manipulated to prepare Earth for an alien invasion is true, and that his top ranking among players of a popular online space-fighter simulation has made him a candidate to do the real thing on behalf of the secret international organization which has been behind all of this.

to quote:

“What if they’re using videogames to train us to fight without us even knowing it? Like Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, when he made Daniel-san paint his house, sand his deck, and wax all of his cars—he was training him and he didn’t even realize it! Wax on, wax off—but on a global scale!”

and

"I felt like Luke Skywalker surveying a hangar full of A-, Y-, and X-Wing Fighters just before the Battle of Yavin. Or Captain Apollo, climbing into the cockpit of his Viper on the Galactica’s flight deck. Ender Wiggin arriving at Battle School. Or Alex Rogan, clutching his Star League uniform, staring wide-eyed at a hangar full of Gunstars."

or the kid from Enders Game

or the kid from The Last StarFighter

or the kid from....(yawn)

Are those quotes real? Goddamn.

Was Rush (or at least Tom Sawyer) always associated with video games or am I right in my assumption that this is a reference to Futurama? If so, that's two strikes, Hollywood, and Oh Yeah Stupid What-If Machine!

This Tom Sawyer's mind is not only available on a rental basis, it's fully colonized by the corporations and the government. Somehow I think the guy Pye and Neil were writing about would struggle to the death to destroy this Oasis thing. I know I would. Wouldn't you?

Rush is just a band the author loves. And is a plot point to solving one of the games "puzzles" (I.E. big fan wanks that he counts as PALPABLE ADVENTURE)

I immediately thought of that Futurama episode

The author dedicates an entire chapter of this book to a Rush concept album where music is equated with Libertarianism.

The author is a Shambling Mound, a monster found in the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, a monster made of garbage, incapable of compassion or love, a monster that I have personally encountered when playing Dungeons and Dragons, a game which exists in the real world, please see the bibliography for a Wikipedia link to a Wikipedia article about Dungeons and Dragons, Wikipedia being an online encyclopedia that is available for free, frequently containing articles about Dungeons and Dragons, a roleplaying game, popular from the late 1970s to the present day, the present year being 2017, although as this is a book, it is possible that you might be reading this in a year later than 2017, in which case, consult Wikipedia or a calendar for assistance, a calendar being a printed device which allows one, if one is properly trained in it's use, to know what year, month and day it currently is, although not specific time, for that, you'd need a watch.

I wasn't sure that I'd read this book until I read coggy's comment

So I have never read the book, what happens when the boy finds the magic McGuffin and assumes control of the soma factory?

Yeah I've noticed a shift in how movies are advertised, thanks to my crippling addiction to Spartan and American Ninja Warrior. Now it's pretty much a hashtag and an imdb highlights list and basically no movie. And now Rotten Tomatoes % is everybody's critical quotation. I'll be curious if by next year movies start "Going Gold" and shit too.

Whoa! Can't wait for the limited access beta of this movie! I hope my theater is compatible! Epic!!!!!!!!

Also, why does Spielberg's CGI always looks so bad?

Counterpoint: The original short film 'Pixels' was all of those things you describe... :(

oops my bad regarding my post up above though; the imdb lists the novel as 2018 but that's because of the movie adaptation itself, and the book came out in 2011, which was actually before Black Mirror anyway. Still looks like shit though..

I disagree, the book is an unreadable mess.

Counterpoint: You are wrong.

I consider trailers are unreliable because by picking the absolute best scenes of a movie and cramming them into three minutes of spiffy editing and exciting music you can make any piece of shit look.

This trailer looked like absolute shit...

"look good" that was.

meh, the book was Ok but it all got wrapped up way too fast at the end, almost like he had a big deadline or got paid, or something.

It was definitely no Bridge Trilogy or Snowcrash...

well I have only read this extract and if it is anything to go by it is just laughably bad:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsqhXZUWYAExZbO.jpg:large

Wow. It really is 50 Shades of Grey for nostalgia whores.

I really liked Munich and Bridge of Spies.. I don't know if those movies count anymore though.

Stranger Things was good.

Oh...

well Stranger Things works because to me anyway it comes off as a screenplay from some 80s guy who hated Spielberg, and wished ET kicked more ass or that Goonies actually did die.

I dunno, I didn't have complaints with Tintin. I just didn't see the point.

I'm not really familiar with Tin Tin but even I thought the CGI looked kinda stupid when they could've gone with traditional animation. Same goes for BFG actually, just based on the iconic novel illustration alone. Sympathy for the devil but at least CGI bullshit is adapted from CGI bullshit this time?

You guys are right I should give Munich a try as I haven't seen it yet.

It's kinda like Scorcese and Hugo, except Hugo only happened one time and was actually pretty good. Spielberg can make an old-school movie better than just about anybody alive today, but he must have quit the drugs decades ago.

Hugo was Scorsese pulling a Tim Burton and inserting himself into a mostly completed film the studio was going to make anyway.

5 for evil. I hope I never see this.

what they need is an americathon!

I've only been through Columbus but "Industrial" doesn't necessarily spring into my mind. Is Manchester kinda like Vancouver in that they film a lot of "20XX London" there? And even if so, why didn't Spielberg just go for Vancouver in the first place?

The reason for Columbus is simple: IT's the author's home town. The book is 384 of him pining for how much he loved his childhood and wants his love of 80's pop culture to carry him through life.

"you guys remember the Iron Giant?!"

"no"

"well too bad, 'cuse here he is! :D"

I mean, what even is "geek culture" any more? It's just mainstream culture. Mainstream culture references crammed incoherently into your eyeballs, like a shitty 2-hour medley of Beatles covers by pop stars. That's a pass.

Imagine a book/film developed from the profit-thirsty squeezings of the pulp popularity of Big Bang Theory only take away the laugh track and the over-paid actors and you have this disaster.

"Geek culture" is anything that was niche 20 years ago that has made x amount of profit that can be resold as "legacy" media, ie "I liked this as a kid therefor my kids will also enjoy this". this also means somebody bought a whole bunch of Iron Giant DVDs.

Ready Player One 2: DLC

Ready Player One: Insert Disk Two and press

It's the latter.

For instance, the main character has an in-game car that is modeled on the Back to the Future DeLorean with lights from KITT and Ghostbusters logos on the doors.

I did not make any of that up.

I mean, that's realistic.

If I could have done shit like that in games at around the age of the character I would have done it.

Nah, blackface implies an impersonation. This is nerd Turner Diaries.