Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I feel like anyone 40+ just won't connect with it in the same way.

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I'd say 50+. 40+ was born in the 70s and came of age in the 80s. Unless they go more 90s with the nostalgia stuff

I guess you're right.

It probably appeals to both generations. (The 80's kids as well as the 90's video game generation.)

I grew up loving 80's movies like BttF and ET, but I only knew them from VHS.

Heck, I was born in 1980 and half the references I've seen in the trailers are going right over my head. This looks way more '90s than I was expecting. That, and it's feeling more and more directed at the gaming community, of which I haven't been a part of since junior high. In other words, the more I've seen of this movie, the more narrow it's audience has seemingly become. For instance, I have absolutely no idea what the big bald soldier character is from, the one that seems to be good friends with the two main characters. Granted, the story itself should be universally relatable, and it sounds like a great movie, I'm just saying that I'm surprised at how relatively specific some of the references seem to be.

TCTTS said:

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Heck, I was born in 1980 and half the references I've seen in the trailers are going right over my head. This looks way more '90s than I was expecting. That, and it's feeling more and more directed at the gaming community, of which I haven't been a part of since junior high. In other words, the more I've seen of this movie, the more narrow it's audience has seemingly become. For instance, I have absolutely no idea what the big bald soldier character is from, the one that seems to be good friends with the two main characters. Granted, the story itself should be universally relatable, and it sounds like a great movie, I'm just saying that I'm surprised at how relatively specific some of the references seem to be.

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You're surprised how specific the references are in a movie that's based on a book that is entirely about a series of Easter eggs inside what is essentially a giant video game?

Spielberg definitely included much more recent references (at least based on the trailers), including modern video game characters that are only a few years old. To be fair though, modern video games were mentioned as having been integrated into the OASIS in the book, they just weren't central to the story.

Good to know! I thought I saw someone say he's from a video game.

I think it was kind of smart to broaden the scope of the references a bit. The book is from the standpoint of Wade, who is an 80s-o-phile because the guy who started the Oasis is an 80s-o-phile. But if you think about the world at large, it's set in the future, so people would be hooked on all pop culture, not just the pop culture our protagonist is hooked on.

I can only remember a handful of post-80s references in the book, but I'm sure there are more in there:

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Street Fighter
• Guillermo del Toro
• Star Trek movies and series
• Will Wheaton

So the whole universe encompasses everything; it wouldn't make sense for the Oasis to be only 80s stuff if you think about it in that sense.

Also, I think they open it up to more of an audience by expanding the references. In one of the first trailers, you see Lara Croft from Tomb Raider getting into Christine from the Stephen King novel. That makes no sense, except in a "these are the buttons and patches I bought at Hot Topic to put on my school backpack" kind of sense. Comic book fans can look for comic book character, readers can look for literary references, 80s fans can look for movies and TV references, and video game fans can look for everything.

I'm excited cause I've dipped my toes into each one of those things, which is why I think I enjoyed the book so much. I'm kind of stoked to watch this one several times to catch all the little easter eggs within a game about easter eggs.

Ah okay, I understand what you're saying. I really enjoyed the book, but it was pretty narrowly focused in terms of target audience and it'll be interesting to see how the changes that were made for the movie affect that. If anything, the trailers so far do seem to have a much broader appeal than the book did, at least to me.

I think he uses a gun from the Halo games in the trailer.

TCTTS said:

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I'm just saying that in terms of references, this doesn't look at all like what was being hyped from book readers, and I think the lack of recognition in that department is going to turn a lot of people away.

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It's clear at this point that the movie will be very different from the book. As someone who is a huge fan of the book, I'm ok with that. I trust Spielberg has taken the heart of the book and turned it into something that will work on the big screen for 140 minutes.

Gotcha. That's probably it.

MW03 said:

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I think it was kind of smart to broaden the scope of the references a bit. The book is from the standpoint of Wade, who is an 80s-o-phile because the guy who started the Oasis is an 80s-o-phile. But if you think about the world at large, it's set in the future, so people would be hooked on all pop culture, not just the pop culture our protagonist is hooked on.

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This is a good point. The exposition in the book is all narrowly related to the hunt. But the OASIS is branded as this huge, ever evolving universe. It gives Spielberg some leeway to expand his setting and still maintain the feel of the OASIS.

Cstrickland05 said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I feel like anyone 40+ just won't connect with it in the same way.

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I'd say 50+. 40+ was born in the 70s and came of age in the 80s. Unless they go more 90s with the nostalgia stuff

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They have stuff from recent years too. Hell, I saw Overwatch characters in it which just came out a year or two ago.

Go check out Ernie Cline's twitter banner photo @erniecline

Not sure how to post it here. It's the modified deloreans described in the book

3rdGen2015 said:

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Not exactly the same as what looks like the cars they used on set, but here's a video of his personal one. He is a true 80's nerd.

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That's amazing

3rdGen2015 said:

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Not exactly the same as what looks like the cars they used on set, but here's a video of his personal one. He is a true 80's nerd.

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I would take that over a Lamborghini.

Btw, isn't someone here seeing it tonight? Looking forward to the reaction...

I ended up not being able to make it. Dad lyfe but my uncle went so I'll text him later and see what he thought.

So who all is going tomorrow night?

Dang. Sorry to hear.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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So who all is going tomorrow night?

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I am. Bought to tickets at the exact same time at two separate theaters in two different part of the city. If I'm running late because of work, I'll do the ArcLight in Hollywood close by, but if it looks like I can get away early, I'll be hitting the new-ish recliner theater at the Westfield Mall in Century City. Will return whichever ticket I don't use.

7 tomorrow night. So pumped

I'm a slacker, have tickets at the College Station Cinemark for imax 3d Thursday night.

Going at 7:45 tonight!

Can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts. Really looking forward to this one.

Jeremy Jahns gave it a great review.

7:30 IMAX 3D tonight.

Pumped!

Is there a reason to see this on a real IMAX screen?

7:30 tonight