The other night, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Ready Player One, which is based on the book by Ernest Cline. I read the book a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. The way it fused a ton of 1980s pop-culture references into a basic science fiction story was interesting and enjoyable. It wasn’t the most original story I’d ever read but it was a lot of fun to discover how the different pieces of movie, television, and video game nostalgia were sprinkled throughout the story.
When I heard that Spielberg was going to direct the movie adaptation, I was impressed with the choice. I thought he might be the perfect director for this project. Especially since he directed some of the movies that were referenced in the book. And, of course, he’d improved a little book named Jaws and made one of the best movies of all-time.
Like Jaws, the screenplay of Ready Player One was co-written by the author of the source material. So, I expected that any changes that would be made would be for clarity, time, or simple improvement. Of course, movie making isn’t that simplistic and things don’t quite work that way. But I could hope.
The story takes place in the near future of 2045 where a virtual reality service called the OASIS has become the main way for people to escape the drudgery of everyday life. In the OASIS, a person can become whatever they want to be, do whatever they want to do, and realize any dream they desire as long as they have enough in credits to do so.
As his last wish, the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), has engineered a contest that requires players to find three keys that are scattered throughout the many worlds contained within his creation. The first person to find all three keys would not only get bragging rights but would also assume control of the OASIS and its parent company.
One player named Wade (Tye Sheridan) – who goes by the name of Parzival inside the OASIS – has dedicated his life to researching every detail about Halliday in an effort to win the contest. Since Halliday grew up in the 1980s, Wade and his friends have immersed themselves in 1980s pop-culture to unearth clues to the possible whereabouts of the keys.
Competing against Wade and his friends are millions of other players and a man named Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who happens to run IOI, a company who want to assume control of the OASIS and heavily commercialize its content. Sorrento has employed indentured servants of a sort – called Sixers – who can pay off their debts by helping him find the keys in the VR world.
Wade has become something of an expert on Halliday by constantly looking for clues in The Journals, a collection of Halliday’s memories which is housed in the OASIS. As a result, Wade knows every movie, video game, and television show that Halliday has ingested, plus, he can also watch moments from Halliday’s life which have been cobbled together from security cameras and other footage.
Along the way, Wade meets Artemis, a girl avatar (Olivia Cooke from TV’s Bates Motel), who may or may not be a girl in real life. (Although, if you’ve paid any attention to the marketing for this movie, that’s not a spoiler.) With Artemis in tow, Wade encounter hundreds of old movie references, game references, Sixers and, of course, Sorrento and his hired goon, I-ROC (played by Deadpool’s TJ Miller), who delivers some of the worst groaners in the script, as they try to retrieve the keys before anyone else can.
At face value, Ready Player One is a simple quest story. It’s the layers of nostalgia that differentiate it from anything else. One needs to have a reasonable amount of familiarity with the references for the film to make much sense. So, on one hand, this film made my inner geek very happy as I saw references to The Iron Giant, Star Wars, Atari 2600 games, and even a ColecoVision among literally hundreds of other things. But on the other hand, I will assume that this will mean utter confusion for those that don’t have knowledge of these types of things. Of course, that’s like saying that those who don’t like violence won’t appreciate the Friday the 13th movies. So, if you’re planning on seeing this film, you hopefully know the references or at least most of them.
Ready Player One can’t rely on the nostalgia factor alone to be worth recommending. Unfortunately, that is one of the main things it has going for it. The story has been heavily reworked from the book’s version. The result feels a little too simplistic and rushed even though the film itself is over two hours and 15 minutes long. The script also relies on heavy doses of exposition to get audiences up to speed on what’s going on and to recap events throughout the film.
The action sequences are, for the most part, chaotic and so “busy” that it’s hard to follow what’s happening a lot of the time. Of course, that might be because I spent a lot of time just looking around the screen trying to pin-point characters from other films rather than focusing on the main characters. While it is awesome to see who and what Spielberg and co-writers Zak Penn and Ernest Cline were legally able to throw together on-screen, ultimately it seems like we’re being diverted because, without all the window dressing, this is quite a rudimentary story.
Speaking of characters, the collection of protagonists we’re given in Wade, Artemis, Aech, Daito and Shoto, (collectively known as the High Five) aren’t particularly well-drawn or fleshed-out. Aside from Halliday, we get to know very little about any of the characters in Ready Player One. Wade gets a bit more back story simply because we have to navigate his initial living arrangements but, other than that, he’s as anonymous as, well, a character from any early 80s video game.
It also doesn’t help that a lot of the humor falls flat. In the screening I attended, I remember only one time that a joke garnered an audible chuckle from the audience. Not a good sign.
I really wanted to love the movie as much as I enjoyed the book but it didn’t happen that way. I did like Mark Rylance’s portrayal of James Halliday. He seemed to be the most sincere thing about the entire film. Simon Pegg, appears as Halliday’s one-time business partner, Og, and hearing him speak in an American accent was initially a bit weird, but I liked his character as well.
As much as I enjoyed seeing elements of my childhood getting some well-deserved love and attention on a mainstream stage, it didn’t translate into a wholly enjoyable movie going experience. I walked away underwhelmed and I never once felt a connection with the story or the outcome. And, I don’t think having read the book really shaped my opinion of it as much as one might expect. It just didn’t gel for me.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
