At least compared to something like Altered Carbon, Steven Spielberg and Ready Player One’s writer Ernest Cline’s vision of the future is still dystopian but somewhat more hopeful. It feels like Spielberg is simply out to have fun with the audience in the adaption of Cline’s hit novel, and it’s evident in the abundance of pop culture references and cameos, which the book also utilized heavily.
Even though it’s not based on one specific game property, it feels more like a true “video game film” in a true sense. The characters utilize common game strategies to overcome their obstacles- not limited to exploring the various virtual lands in the movie to discover a hidden secret, as any person who’s ground through a game to unlock certain features would be familiar with.
Cline’s story revolves around Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a boy who lives in a trailer in a dystopian slum. The world of the future is head over heels for virtual reality, and the simulated world of OASIS is the place to be- people interact and play with their own developed avatars alongside pop culture figures like King Kong and Batman. Heck, you can blast Freddy Kruger with a pulse rifle in an action sim if you so choose.
Its late creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) is represented as a mystical wizard, who challenges the OASIS players to quest for three keys that will unlock the control of the entire virtual world.The film never explicitly states whether or not Halliday is on the spectrum, but it’d be easy to acquire that impression given his socially awkward demeanor, and Rylance’s performance helps make him an enigmatic but still appealing figure.
Watts and his friends are opposed by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), a corporate suit and former apprentice of Halliday’s who runs Innovative Online Industries (IOI) a shady corporation in search of the keys and command of the OASIS. He employs a legion of virtual troopers who log into the game en masse.
But Sorrento’s men can’t manage to keep up with Watts’s silver-haired avatar Parzival and his team of “Gunters”- a ninja named Sho (Phillip Zhao), the samurai fighter Daito (Win Morisaki), the red-clad adventurer Atr3mis (Olivia Cooke) and the orc warrior Aech (Lena Waithe). How shady is IOI? Enough to kidnap citizens for forced labor and attack random people in the slums in order to get what they want, and it’s not before long that both sides’ respective journeys collide.
There’s nothing especially wrong with Parzival as a lead, he’s a likable enough hero with an interesting design. But Art3mis and Aech will probably be the more memorable characters for most of the audience leaving the theater. Waithe’s ogre Aech especially shines during a scene where the High Five venture into a simulation that Halladay designed around Stanley Kubrick’s Shining film, complete with a bloodier hallway than ever before.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of Wade’s life in the outside world trying to take care of his aunt, as there is one scene between them and her boyfriend (Ralph Ineson) I felt was one of the most emotionally resonant in the film. I understand why Spielberg and Cline chose to focus more on the visually more impressive Oasis, but it would have been nice to have more of a balance.
Most of the references fly across the screen very briefly, so only the most eagle-eyed viewers will pick up the lion’s share of them. Parzival speeds across the race path in Back To The Future’s DeLorean, and uses a “Zemeckis Cube” (actually a superpowered Rubix’s cube) as a grenade. If you squint hard enough, you can see Chun-Li both dancing at a virtual nightclub and during the climactic battle.
She’s joined by Sonic the Hedgehog, who can also be spotted momentarily with Marvin the Martian, Hello Kitty and even Tracer from Overwatch early in RP1 at one point. And I will admit it’s pretty impressive watching the Iron Giant battle alongside a Gundam, despite the fact the original Giant was a creature of peace.
Stories are more important in modern games than ever before, and RP1’s is generally a straightforward adventure film, albeit with some interesting ideas that I think could have been explored more at points (mostly the theme of valuing reality over fantasy). This seems like the kind of adaption that needed more running time to flesh out its themes, like how Carbon opted for a miniseries as opposed to a film’s running time to fit all of its various concepts in.
My biggest critique with Ready Player One is its relative lack of emotional impact. It’s certainly not nonexistent, but it probably won’t give you those intense feelings that other Spielberg films like E.T. or Schindler’s List will. Some of the romantic moments with Sheridan and Cooke could have been written better, and the supporting cast could have had more character development.
Still, for what it is, RP1 is a fun popcorn movie, and I’m sure proud nerds will find plenty of things in it to geek out over. I’ll give it a fair recommendation. If you’d had the chance to log into the OASIS and have an opinion on this film, shout at us at https://twitter.com/official_fan and tell us what you thought!