In the year 2045, much of humanity attempts to escape the desolation of the real world by escaping into the the virtual reality world of OASIS.When the creator of OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance, looking a lot like Garth from Wayne's World!) died he promised his fortune and control of OASIS to whoever could complete his hidden game within the program, thus began the great hunt for Halliday’s Easter Egg a.k.a. the Anorak's Quest! Those on the Quest are known as "gunters."
After becoming the first player to complete the initial challenge, gunter Wade Watts (Tye Sharidan) is joined by several allies trying to complete the game before the indentured players working for IOI, an evil villainous corporation run by an evil villain named Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), can do so.
Directed by Steven Spielberg with screenplay by Zak Penn and Earnest Cline, Ready Player One is based upon the novel of the same name by Earnest Cline. The novel was jam-packed with copyrighted elements, the rights to all of which, had to be secured before filming cold even begin. Many of these elements were just unavailable and had to be either replaced by substitutes or eliminated altogether.
Plot holes and unanswered questions, resolved in the book, abound in the movie! For instance, doesn't it seem strangely coincidental that within the world-wide on-line virtual reality of the OASIS, all of Wade's allies and enemies just-so-happen to physically be in the very same city in which he lives?
A bit of research into the book reveals this isn't even an issue with the players scattered all over the world: Art3mis in British Columbia, Aech from Atlanta, Georgia, and Daito & Shoto, of course in Japan. Also in the book, The only player Wade actually meets in real-life during the course of the gameplay is Aech!
While ignoring or skimming over background details and character building in favor of a nostaglic thrill ride sprinkled with Gen-X pop culture, the movie's narrative weaknesses become little more than fridge logic thanks to the distractions of the scenery and the breath-taking non-stop action. Only the masterful storytelling and direction of Steven Spielberg could pull this off.
With Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg gives us a sweetly nostalgic, yet action packed, look at the last 40 years of our pop culture (140 Mins). 3 1/2 stars.
Have you seen Ready Player One? Tell us what you thought of it in the comments below.
I have not seen it, but will do so when it hits Netflix. I didn't figure it would be anything short of a nostalgic popcorn to face shoving "dumb" action flick. Usually when the commercials are filled with non-stop CGi you can't expect much in terms of cohesive or well thought out story.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I enjoyed it... I suspect she and many others were wondering what I was chuckling at when some of the very obscure pop culture references were made. Its a pop corn flick for sure. I think the book is whole lot deeper and thought provoking. I plan to read it when we add it to the collection at the library.
DeleteLet's also be honest here - Nobody cares about the human characters on screen. We just want to see all of our nostalgic favorites crammed in the same rectangle at once so we can point them out and ooh and aah.
ReplyDeleteI guess i´l have to wait for the blu-ray. I´m just curious to see the DeLorean. I never heard of this book and i´m surprised that literally everyone else knows about it
ReplyDeleteI only learned about the book after I heard about the movie. I still haven't actually read the book. I have heard that if you want to enjoy the movie that you shouldn't read the book first. I can see that.
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