Weekend Watch: ‘Ready Player One’ Influences, Jeff Goldblum Breaks Down his Career, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ & More

Welcome to Weekend Watch, where we highlight some of the best nerd-related videos released throughout the week. Whether it be short films, behind the scenes videos, or video essays, the only requirement is that they are about–in some shape or form–our favorite movies and TV shows!

In this edition of Weekend Watch, we take a look at a cool VFX breakdown for ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘, a Video with Ernest Cline detailing all of his ‘Ready Player One‘ influences and great video essay that details the visual similarities Steven Spielberg‘s filmography. Plus, we have a wonderful video of Jeff Goldblum revisiting his career and a hilarious scene breakdown from ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘. Let’s jump right in!

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Starting off, we have a cool VFX breakdown from ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘, straight from VFX house Iloura. Although this breakdown focuses primarily on the helicopter/rhino chase scene from the film, this video gives a great look into the many effects that were required to bring the film to life.

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Up next, we have a cool video from Wired that features ‘Ready Player One‘ Author/Co-Screenwriter Ernest Cline detailing all of the video game references in the story. Even though Cline gets super spoiler-y about all of the influences/references from the novel/film, it proves to be a good litmus test on Cline’s mindset when crafting the story.

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While we’re on the subject of Steven Spielberg, here’s a cool video by ScreenPrism that details all of the visual, thematic and narrative cues that make up the legendary director’s work. Part of what makes Spielberg’s career so remarkable is that he is able to take these core thematic elements and apply them to almost any film that he chooses to direct.

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Speilberg alumnus Jeff Goldblum sat down with Vanity Fair to discuss the actor’s lengthy career, including his pivotal role in ‘Jurassic Park‘. In the video, Goldblum talks about coinciding with important directors on some of their most important films. From the original ‘Death Wish’ all the way to his most recent work in ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘ & ‘Isle of Dogs‘, Goldblum has surely worked with some of the best and brightest.

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Finally, we’ll leave off with another entry in Vanity Fair‘s ongoing series ‘Notes on a Scene‘, with ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘ Director Taika Waititi. In the scene breakdown, Watiti’s signature style of comedy permeates throughout, but there are also some great moments of insight about this simple yet pivotal scene early in the third act of the film. Sometimes it’s the simples scenes that can be the toughest to pull off, such as making the audience believe the scene wasn’t shot on a green screen.