Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well, and welcome to my review of Ready Player One! This movie has had a lot of hype building up to it's release, getting many people very excited to see it. I personally didn't know anything about it going in so I wasn't that hyped at all, except for the fact that Steven Spielberg was the director and he has a great track record with most of his films. Originally Ready Player One was a novel written by Ernest Cline that came out in 2011, and it had built up something of a cult following due to all of the pop culture references and the subject matter it dealt with in general. As we all know from experience, whenever Hollywood takes a popular book and turns it into a film usually it pales in comparison to the original source material, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be bad. Now that I've had a chance to watch this, let's get into it.
Ready Player One is a science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, and it stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, and Simon Pegg. It's set in the year 2045, and most of the world has become overpopulated and run down making most areas nothing more than slums. People are all very unhappy in the real world, with very little opportunity and nothing to offer for the common folk. So instead of living in reality, the vast majority of earth's citizens use these virtual reality devices that transport them into the shared world of the OASIS. The OASIS is a place where everyone goes to work, play, and to escape the harsh day to day life of the real world.
In this virtual reality people can take on any type of avatar character that they wish. If you're a small wimpy guy in real life you can become a hulking badass, there's very few limits on who you can become in there, regardless of who you are in real life.. Everyone shares the same OASIS, but there's many different places you can go to and explore, taking on quests with your friends to kill bad guys and collect as much loot as possible to upgrade your avatar. Basically some genius created this device that turns everyone's actual life into a videogame, where you can be and do whatever you want. The only consequence is that if you die you will lose all of the loot and weapons you've collected, and will have to start over again from scratch.
One day while inside the OASIS someone discovered a secret quest left there by the creator of this device who has since passed away, James Halliday, that says there are three hidden keys to find that can only be obtained by following his clues and completing the challenges that await. The first person to discover all three keys will be granted full ownership of the OASIS and everything in it will be under their control. This sparks a worldwide hunt for these three secret keys that everyone, normal citizen and powerful businessman alike, is trying so hard to find. This proves to be no easy task of course and even though some vague clues were left behind as a guide, nobody has come close to finding any of them yet.
That is until Wade Watts, Tye Sheridan's character, puts together the true meaning behind the clues and actually locates the first key. Once he's in possession of the first one he shares his inside information with his closest friends and they all team up together to try and find the remaining two keys. Unfortunately for Wade this also puts a target on his back, not only in the OASIS, but in the real world as well, and now the worlds most powerful man, Nolan Sorrento, is gunning for Wade and his friends. If he's smart enough and lucky enough Wade might just stand a chance of finding all three keys, while actually living to tell the tale.
I didn't know much about this film going into it other than the basic premise of people living in a virtual reality world, so I was pleasantly surprised by most of what I saw. This is a very fast paced, suspenseful movie that is also a lot of fun to watch. There's one huge over the top action scene after another, with short breaks here and there to showcase the cat and mouse game between Wade Watts and Nolan Sorrento. Spielberg does a great job of making the action intense, but light hearted, while managing to not feel disorienting or confusing, something he's no doubt had a lot of practice with. Visually the whole experience is very enjoyable, especially if you're someone who is into, or at least familiar with videogames.
If not you might get tired of watching these virtual characters and wish the film spent more time in the real world. There's a lot of interesting things that could have been done with the real world aspect of this future setting, but most of the running time is spent inside the OASIS which is like watching a videogame. The movie is fairly long as it is though, so I can see why they made this decision and it didn't bother me that much. Although the real world side of the story isn't really fleshed out, and most of the characters have no back story or arcs of any kind, that's not what this film is about. This is just a fun, over the top ride, that doesn't take itself too seriously and tries to celebrate all the great things about movies and games.
All throughout the film you will see loads of references to everything pop culture. In the first ten minutes alone I spotted things from Jurassic Park, King Kong, Back To The Future, Tron, and I'm sure I probably missed a bunch more. You could most likely watch this movie numerous times and continue to find new Easter Eggs hidden amongst the action that you missed before. Some of these pop culture cameos are used in such interesting ways that if you're a fan of these types of things I don't see how you couldn't have a good time watching this film.
I love all of these game and movie references, that's all stuff that I grew up watching and playing, so I was excited to see all of these things together in one place. If you're not though most of what's happening might go right over your head, leaving you kind of lost as to what is going on, especially with the thin characters and plot. If that's the case you might get bored watching this, because it's basically a non stop celebration of the past 30 years of movies and games. With that in mind, this is definitely one to go see in the theatres, it's a visual spectacle all the way through, and a fun fast paced adventure. I give Ready Player One a grade of.....................................
B-
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it!