Ready Player One review

READY PLAYER ONE:

STEVEN SPIELBERG DELIVERS A FAITHFUL ADAPTATION OF ERNEST CLINE’S NOVEL AS WELL AS A POP-CULTURE MINDF*CK!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

A competition for full control of the future will begin in Ready Player One

            From director, Steven Spielberg (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, The Post) comes a sci-fi adventure film like no other, Ready Player One, based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline who also co-wrote the film’s script. I don’t do a whole lot of reading in my spare time but Ready Player One is such an explosion of pop-culture references from movies, video games, TV shows, cartoons, and comic books consistently throughout the book, I was hooked until the last page, this is probably what you’d get if I ever wrote a book.

            So, I was more than onboard for a movie adaptation and Spielberg seemed like the perfect choice to helm it, since he’s directed and produced like, every single genre of film. From sci-fi films like E.T., Jurassic Park, and the Back to the Future trilogy to horror movies such as Twilight Zone: The Movie, Poltergeist, and Duel, the greatest shark movie ever made, Jaws, comedies like Catch Me If You Can, the Men in Black trilogy, and Gremlins, and he even produced the groundbreaking blend of live-action and animation, Who framed Roger Rabbit.

            After seeing the movie, I can gladly say, not only is it a faithful adaptation of the book but it’s even better. Spielberg doesn’t limit the film to only the references and characters from the book, but expands on them to great lengths, add flashy eye-candy visuals, some decent humor, and some wild action sequences, and you get a glorious pop-culture mindf*ck.

            In the post-apocalyptic future of 2045, the film follows a teenage boy named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan-Mud, Joe, X-Men: Apocalypse) who lives in the corrupted, overpopulated, and polluted slums of Columbus, Ohio with nowhere to go…physically. To escape the harsh reality, he enters a virtual world called the Oasis where anything is possible, and users can interact and engage in various activities for work, education, and entertainment.

            The Oasis was created by the deceased, James Halliday (Mark Rylance-Bridge of Spies, The BFG, Dunkirk) and heavily inspired by 80s nostalgia from his childhood such as Atari 2600 games like Adventure and Galaga to movies like The Shining. After the Oasis went online, it eventually became a wonderland of famous worlds, characters, and objects such as The DeLorean from Back to the Future, the world of Minecraft, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, Tracer from Overwatch, Master Chief and the Spartans from Halo, Freddy Krueger, Batman, Ryu from Street Fighter, Chucky, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mobile Suit Gundam, Kaneda’s bike from Akira, Mechagodzilla, The Iron Giant, and many others.

            At the time of his passing, Halliday hid an Easter egg in the Oasis that grants the winner of his challenge complete control of the Oasis, which translates out to control of the future. Wade, with the help of rebellion team, Art3mis (Olivia Cooke-Bates Motel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Thoroughbreds), Aech (Lena Waithe-Bones, Dear White People, Master of None), Daito (Win Morisaki-Tokyo Girl, Gokusen Special 3, Tengoku Kara no Yell), and Sho (Newcomer, Phillip Zhao) must race to find the egg before the ruthless corporation known as IOI (Innovative Online Industries), a video game corporation so evil it puts EA Games to shame, and its CEO, Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn-Bloodline, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Darkest Hour) take control of the Oasis, and save both the virtual and real world from IOI’s power.

            The film also stars T.J. Miller (Silicon Valley, Gravity Falls, Deadpool) as i-R0k, Simon Pegg (Cornetto trilogy, Star Trek (2009) trilogy, The Boxtrolls) as the Curator, and Hannah John-Kamen (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Tomb Raider, Ant-Man and the Wasp) as F’Nale Zandor.

            Overall, Ready Player One is an absolute joy-ride and follows in the footsteps of Mad Max: Fury Road as one of those movies that needs a lap bar and a harness to come down over the seat like a rollercoaster. Specifically, during any race scene or action sequence, because there is so much flying out at you and it’s consistently energetic to the point where your brain feels numb, and unlike a Michael Bay Transformers movie you don’t get sick or feel bored by its relentless action.

            When you see a bunch of vehicles driving off a cliff to the other side of the racetrack, with a wrecking ball destroying everything in its path, while being chased by the Jurassic Park T-Rex, and attacked by King Kong, literally I think the only thing missing was the flaming guitar guy from Mad Max (Warner Bros. you had only ONE job, ONE JOB!). Obviously watching several beloved characters engage in a war against the IOI is absolutely thrilling, and…it gives any Marvel Cinematic Universe climax a run for their money, YES, I went there.

            However, if I had to nitpick a few things, the plot isn’t that original, real people in a virtual world that feels like reality, didn’t we see this in Tron, the notorious Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, and most recently in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle? Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke deliver portray Wade and Art3mis well, but a lot of the side characters are pretty forgettable and would have liked to see them established a little better, and there’s not much of an origin to the real world and how it became a post-apocalyptic future. But these are flaws that don’t ruin the movie in any way, I didn’t see Ready Player One to see a post-apocalyptic future and criticize the plot and characters, I came for the nostalgia and pop-culture references, that’s where the film truly shines.

            This is what a good book to film adaptation looks like, respecting and honoring the source material while expanding on it. If it was a word-for-word retelling with nothing new added, what’s the point in watching the movie?

            Spielberg honors Cline’s story and celebrates pop-culture in a way that has never been done before. Yes, Roger Rabbit and Wreck-It Ralph have celebrated parts of pop-culture such as cartoons and video games, here’s a movie that pays tribute to pop-culture as a whole and the impact it has on many people’s lives.

            Ready Player One is Spielberg magic and thrills on steroids that must be seen in theaters to truly believe. In fact, I’m tempted to go see it again in 4D if it’s playing near me in that format.