UPDATE out of SXSW: Erik Davis of Fandango, whose opinion I trust, says: ” #ReadyPlayerOne is classic Steven Spielberg. It’s got the references, the ferocious effects and the great ‘80s soundtrack, sure, but also the charm, the heart, the humor and a fantastic Alan Silvestri score. I loved it & so did this #SXSW crowd. Be excited for it!…I don’t know if I have ever seen a #SXSW crowd cheer on a movie the way they just cheered on #ReadyPlayerOne. We haven’t seen this Spielberg in a long time – it’s just pure entertainment and it’s hard not to watch it without a dorky smile on your face the whole time”
According to reports, Spielberg appeared at end of movie and got a standing ovation. Spielberg told the audience: “This is perhaps the greatest anxiety attack I’ve ever had.”
If this doesn’t answer whether people loved #ReadyPlayerOne, I don’t know what will. pic.twitter.com/2uXGYCAck7
— Beatrice Verhoeven (@bverhoev) March 12, 2018
EARLIER
Twice Sunday night, Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” had to be stopped during its premiere screening at the South by Southwest Festival.
The sound went out each time it started, and in the same place.
Warner Bros. is counting on “Ready Player One,” as is Spielberg. His last sci-fi kind of film, “The BFG,” was very good but flopped at the box office. Since then, he’s given us “The Post,” the biggest box office movie of Christmas’s Oscar films. But it wasn’t the smash I — and others– predicted.
“Ready Player One” opens March 29th. Now that the screening is underway, we’ll have audience reaction when it ends.
PS the whole back and forth on Film Twitter about “Ready Player One.” The whole gang there simultaneously wants this movie to fail and at the same time they want to blame the naysayers for making it fail. I can’t imagine what this must sound like to Spielberg, the man who made “Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park, “ET,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” He must think, Have these people lost their minds?
