Movies & TV / Reviews
Ready Player One Review
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Written By: Zak Penn and Ernest Cline; Based on the novel by Ernest Cline
Runtime: 140 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13
Tye Sheridan – Parzival/Wade Watts
Olivia Cooke – Artemis/Samantha
Ben Mendelsohn – Nolan Sorrento
Lena Waithe – Aech/Helen
T.J. Miller – I-R0K
Simon Pegg – Ogden Morrow
Mark Rylance – Anorak/James Halliday
Philip Zhao – Sho
Win Morisaki – Daito
Hannah John-Kamen – F’Nale Zandor
Perdita Weeks – Kira/Karen
While filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s latest work, Ready Player One, is not necessarily a return to form for the esteemed director, it’s certainly a more familiar experience of which Spielberg has not really approached in eons. Regardless, this new adventure from Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment banner and Warner Bros. is an entertaining romp that plays on not just nostalgia for the properties people love but for Spielberg’s own iconic filmography.
Set in the year 2045, Ready Player One is a slightly dystopian take on a world that seems a few steps away from becoming the future of the Earth that was depicted in Pixar’s WALL-E. Despite the rather bleak setting and state of the world in which the film’s central protagonist, Wade Watts (Sheridan), finds himself in, Ready Player One is not a movie that beats the audience over the head with cynicism. If anything, Ready Player One is far more uplifting despite some rather dire circumstances.
In 2045, young Wade lives in a futuristic slum in Columbus, Ohio called the Stacks. It’s pretty much a garbage dump where the denizens are forced to live in trailer homes that are conveniently stacked high on top of each other. With such a depressing existence, it’s no surprise that people are desperate for an escape from the harsh conditions of reality. People find that escape with an online multiplayer virtual reality game called OASIS, which was created by the socially awkward game developing prodigy James Halliday (Rylance).
With OASIS, gamers can plug themselves into the digital realm using deep-dive virtual reality rigs and suits, where they can even feel the sensations of what happens to their digital avatars. The only thing they can’t do is eat, drink or go to the bathroom. However, character death or “zeroing out” means a complete loss of players’ entire inventory; and their progression level is reset back to zero. So, the stakes of players who seek to profit from obtaining high-level upgrades are incredibly high.
Five years earlier, Halliday passed away, but he challenged his player base to discover a hidden Easter Egg inside OASIS. The one who finds it will be granted not only control and ownership of the game, but also his highly lucrative company, with assets valued in the trillions. Wade doesn’t have much going for him in life, but he’s quite possibly the most knowledgable fan of James Halliday and OASIS on the planet. He eventually unlocks the clue in the first challenge to gain access to one of three keys that will unlock Halliday’s secret Easter egg. Unfortunately for Wade, this movie’s stand-in for Electronic Arts, Innovative Online Industries (IOI), is aiming to get to Halliday’s Easter Egg first. IOI CEO Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn) is willing to get control of OASIS by any means necessary; even if it means taking some extralegal measures.
While Wade fancies himself as a solo player, his best friend in the game is an expert OASIS mod designer, Aech (Waithe). He also soon gains the attention of one of the top OASIS players, Artemis (Cooke), after he helps her survive the end of a high-stakes race that grants one of the three hidden keys to the coveted Easter Egg. Wade is smitten by Artemis, despite not knowing anything about what she’s like in the real world.
After Wade is the first to discover one of Halliday’s hidden keys, he gains a great deal of attention and popularity, but that also puts him in the crosshairs of Nolan Sorrento and his goons: a would-be player-killer, I-R0K (Miller); and Sorrento’s head of security F’Nale Zandor (John-Kamen). The story eventually descends in a race against the clock to get to Halliday’s Easter egg before Sorrento is able to obtain, essentially making the dastardly IOI the most powerful corporation in the world.
Spielberg does an excellent job of bringing the world of Ernest Cline’s book to life. Cline, who also serves as co-writer for the film alongside Zak Penn, introduces a unique look into the feature that actually plays as incredibly relevant and palpable. While the film stops short of becoming a cautionary tale or look into the future, it does come off that way in time. The skies of Columbus, Ohio are littered with remote-controlled air drones which offer not just heavy surveillance, but at times, some deadly intent. IOI is allowed to purchase the debt of impoverished civilians, interning them into what is essentially exploitive slave labor. Those interned civilians are forced to toil in digital sweatshops that are dubbed “loyalty centers.”
While conditions of the world are certainly harsh and bleak, Spielberg and the writers don’t really dwell on them so much. Instead, the narrative is more focused on Wade’s hopeful rags-to-riches story and taking the fight to IOI and the unscrupulous Sorrento. Of course, there’s also the imaginative realm of OASIS. It appears in the future, OASIS developer Gregarious Games either had an amazing legal and licensing department, or copyright laws were exponentially rolled back. People can take the form of whatever avatar they choose, including their favorite characters of films, television, cartoons or other video games. The OASIS is also chock-full of references to just about every form of entertainment media you can think of. Wade’s favorite in-game mode of transportation is his personal version of the Delorean from Back to the Future.
Seeing Spielberg play around in such nostalgic space as Ready Player One is one of its most entertaining aspects. He creates a narrative with high-stakes in the digital world, juxtaposed by the certain peril that Wade and his friends face in the real world.
The film features strong lead characters who are all incredibly likable. Tye Sheridan does a great job as a person who feels shunned by the real world but is totally empowered by the possibilities of what he can achieve in OASIS. His relationship with Artemis and her real-world counterpart, along with his newfound party members, produce some of the Ready Player One‘s most satisfying moments.
One message that sort of gets lost in the film’s narrative shuffle is retreating to the safety of the digital world versus facing the reality of the real world and trying to find joy there. Obviously, Wade living with his aunt and her abusive boyfriend will find more affirmation playing a game such as OASIS. The message is in the background for most of the film, but it almost seems shoehorned into the final act. For example, there aren’t necessarily any aspects of his life that Wade is really neglecting from spending a good chunk of his time playing OASIS. The fault of his losses can’t really be lain at his feet.
What’s also a little clunky is the film takes more than a few convenient shortcuts. The incredibly socially awkward James Halliday apparently had the foresight to digitally record his entire career, and all those records are archived within the OASIS library. Even for a Steven Spielberg film, that’s more than a little far-fetched.
The world of OASIS definitely looks interesting from a visual standpoint. Spielberg definitely puts together some imaginative action sequences using a digital realm where it seems the gamers are only limited by their brain capacity. However, there’s also a certain off-putting nature to the digital scenes. This might’ve been purposeful. The CG animation looks highly detailed and almost photo-realistic, but there’s definitely a bit of animated weirdness.
The film’s pacing and the action all move incredibly well, but the action that takes place within OASIS almost looks like it’s moving too quickly. It’s almost like the camera is having difficulty capturing or settling on any of the images. As a result, the action at times becomes a bit too jarring and manic. It’s not that the action is bad, but it would’ve been nice to slow some of the action beats down now and again.
Regardless, there’s something oddly comforting about Spielberg’s familiar handling of Ready Player One. The film provides some refreshing thematic execution from Spielberg about video games, technology and nostalgia, while also presenting a slightly dystopian vision of the future that looks downright tangible. Ready Player One is easily Spielberg’s most enjoyable film in years and probably decades.