Ready Player One - Review Thread

Terminal was decent rom-com... nothing all that mind blowing. 

Though speaking of "War of the Worlds" I want Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg to make another scifi movie again at some point.

That opening scene with the race was cool. And some of the fight scenes were really solid.

Wanted Simon peggs character to be more like the book character, I was particularly looking forward to that party scene but they changed it for the worse in my opinion. The shoehorned love story was my main issue in the book and so it was in this. That whole wrap up and that final line about taking the leap from wade was awful. And do we really think it was just him not making a move that kept him from the girl? That guy? Really?

Yet again way too cheesy and cringy. There's a good way to do that and this didn't go the good way. And it was over long.

6/10

Sometimes it can be difficult to remember for those of us who constantly live, work, and breathe the film industry that many people outside of it will see maybe only two or three movies in an entire year. When I'm getting excited about the latest film by Denis Villeneuve, most would respond "who?" And yet no matter how seldom a lot of these people watch movies in a year, even in the comfort of their homes, I argue that there's few people in this country with legitimate access to media that have not seen at least one film by Steven Spielberg. It's almost impossible to fathom that someone out there hasn't seen at least E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Jaws, or Schindler's List, or Jurassic Park. Spielberg's track record is nothing short of amazing, and whether you like it or not, he's been one of if not the most impactful directors on the film industry and shaping it to become what it is today. Oddly, the king of blockbusters has largely shied away from them since 2008's infamous Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opting to instead focus on prestige dramas like Lincoln and most recently The Post. I'm perfectly okay with Spielberg winding his career down with these types of films, after all the man is in his 70s and everyone's tastes and interests and enthusiasm for certain projects change over time. Still, it's difficult not to pine for those nostalgic blockbusters that were synonymous with Spielberg for decades, so it was a nice surprise to see him returning to just that with an adaptation of the popular novel Ready Player One. It's ripe for the large scope of Spielberg's vision and is also firmly entrenched in glorifying the golden years when Spielberg was king. Still, a film whose footing is firmly dug into virtual reality video games and all the wild technical juggling that comes with creating an expansive world based around that seemed like quite a daunting task for a Spielberg in his 70s. It's the movie he could have made even a decade ago, but now? Now he's only interested in historical dramas, and his last foray into a visual effects heavy blockbuster was one of the worst of his career with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Surely he should stay on this path and steer clear of a film like Ready Player One, leave it to a hungry visual effects supervisor ready to fail upwards at being a director. Ah, but Spielberg, despite naysayers, is exactly the director for Ready Player One, the one who can take a novel like this and realize it as the blockbuster it is, the one who can direct with the vigor and meticulousness of any burgeoning blockbuster filmmaker in their 30s. He practically built many of the elements that the book is so obsessed with! But Spielberg also has a weakness for sentimentalism and lengthy running times, and sadly while his handling of the material and effects is as well as I think anyone could have done, Spielberg gives into his vulnerabilities and we ended up with a film that's fun in spurts but also frustratingly simplistic and shallow given all the ideas it could pursue with more integrity. Ready Player One is proof that Spielberg still has yet to fully relinquish his status as king of the blockbuster and that we can maybe positively hope for the new Indiana Jones to be good, but it's a film that misses the mark at its core storytelling and character foundations.

The world of Ready Player One is one I find intriguing as a casual gamer, but feels illogical and at times downright absurd from a storytelling, filmmaking standpoint. In the future, people have gotten so uninspired to solve the world's problems that they'd rather ignore them outright, causing society to deteriorate into what's not exactly dystopian but feels like it's only not there because of apathy. Fortunately for everyone, a Willy Wonka type game designer named James Halliday (Mark Rylance) has created the OASIS, the most ambitious and immersive gaming experience ever where players enter a virtual world where anything is possible. It's not unlike our own draws towards technology, namely that of using avatars and online connections to live vicariously through the person we want to be in real life, but for one reason or another can't. Halliday later dies, leaving behind a series of Easter eggs whereupon whoever cracks the code will inherit the OASIS and essentially control the world, both real and virtual. All of this is explained in blatantly expositional voiceover, as basically the first twenty minutes of the world building of the film is done as well to my annoyance, by our protagonist, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan). Wade lives in a rundown section of Columbus, Ohio dubbed "The Stacks", where mobile homes that are no longer mobile are literally stacked on top of one another. Like many on the planet, Wade's only real escape from his dreary reality is through the OASIS, and he spends his free time (which I guess is all of his time since the film doesn't show any other responsibilities for him, like school or work or even much time with his family) there with his online friends as they hunt for Halliday's hidden clues. Also after the ownership of the OASIS is an organization called the IOI, who are led by Neal Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), a former partner of Halliday's that rules the gaming world with an Orwellian fist and enlists thousands of gamers to work for him to unlock the OASIS' clues. The IOI as an organization is mostly a cartoon, and represents the epitome of the silliness that inhabits this world. It's a fun idea to build a world off the most glorious of all fan fictions and litter it with pure 80s nostalgia from head to toe, but how we got there is simply based on everyone being lazy and conforming their entire society now to the likes of one person? Okay, sure, I'm gonna go with it because it's fun, moving on. Along the way, Wade encounters Art3mis/Samantha (Olivia Cooke), a female gamer he overtly has a major crush on. He falls for her instantly, even professing his love pretty much right away in a truly awkward exchange, and the two work to stop the IOI from controlling the OASIS. Spielberg's leanings towards shortcut love story tactics and sentimentalism rears its ugly head in a big way here, but there's so much going on around our protagonists that it's easy to forgive Spielberg for keeping our attention fixated on why we're seeing the film in the first place.

This isn't a world I believe in even from a science fiction standpoint, and it's not a world that's fleshed out enough to answer a lot of my questions surrounding how it operates since we spend so much time in the OASIS, but I can't deny that seeing giddy fanboy sights of King Kong, The Iron Giant, Jason Voorhees, Master Chief, and far more that I undoubtedly missed occupy the same screen is spectacular. These cameos are just that, the characters aren't integral parts of the story like in say Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it's nevertheless a real treat to see all of these properties duking it out and Spielberg overseeing it all. Another major issue I have with the film is its total simplicity in resolving conflicts. We're led to believe that this is a complex world, where despite the numerous amounts of players who spend the majority of their lives within the OASIS, are unable to crack any of these codes. Well based on how easily these codes are solved, I don't buy that either. Both video games and 80s films, though I love both, are pretty notorious for a lot of the silly tropes on display in Ready Player One, so I'm apt to forgive the film for leaning on these elements out of a pure "sticking with the aesthetic" argument, but it's downright absurd at times in the film. For example, Wade has gone to the archives of Halliday several times, has watched the same recordings over and over to the point he knows them by heart, yet he watches a recording he's seen many times before, walks away before it's over, and then Halliday in the recording says something that now suddenly clicks with Wade. By George, I've got it! Really, have you never stood there for an extra ten seconds amidst the countless times you've been there? Another classic problem solving technique deployed here is the characters reciting the clue over and over until suddenly, CLICK! Because of course we all know if you just read and reread and reread a passage then eventually the answer will come to you! Again, for all these seeming complexities in this world these are awfully derivative and uninspired methods for our heroes deciphering these messages. Also, are there no cameras or recordings of these game sessions? When Wade there are no methods of people tracing that or looking into it? Again, highly unlikely. Or that when Samantha is Am I nitpicking the film to death? Yes, but that doesn't mean that these aren't larger issues with Ready Player One, who for all its visual splendor fails at following one of the most important rules of cinematic storytelling: show, don't tell. It doesn't help that the movie is a highly predictable one, and with about a half hour to go I wasn't wrought with exhaustion so much as tedium. There are moments in the film of pure visual bliss, like the vehicle race in the beginning or the dance club sequence where Wade and Samantha float around in love, but I found myself unworried about how everything would go in the end. Perhaps the biggest problem with the film is, what are the stakes? Sure, if IOI gains control of the OASIS they'd control the game and thus many aspects of people's social lives, but then again if that's all they're doing, even at their most Orwellian can't people just, well, not play the game? It's never clear in the film how dangerous the IOI actually is outside of players in the OASIS. I mean, we see an actual police force at the end of the film , so I assume there's still a "normal" American government and laws in this futuristic society. Does the IOI controlling the OASIS really mean the fate of the world, or is it Microsoft buying out Sony and Nintendo and while shitty and monopolistic, not a matter of life and death. The movie can't strike a balance between suppressing the barrage of exposition that dominates the film for the visual fun of the OASIS and elaborating more on the larger intricacies of this overarching world. I wanted to know more, but I also wanted to just embrace the fanboy pleasures that the OASIS contains, and while I was intrigued by both I can't ultimately say that I was satisfied in either department.

If it sounds like I'm picking on Ready Player One and a bit disappointed by it, I am. This is a movie with a lot going for it and the perfect director overseeing it all. Fortunately though I'm still happy with what we got, as in the hands of a less capable filmmaker Ready Player One could have been a massive mess in the vein that most (okay, all) video game movies are. It's highly predictable, but also a lot of fun. It relies too heavily on exposition and clunky dialogue to tell its story, yet it's too vague in many respects of its world building. Everything happening in the film feels like a big deal, but is it really? The story isn't anything groundbreaking, but can a lover of film, video games, and nostalgia in general truly be upset with what Spielberg delivered here? In the end there is more about Ready Player One that I liked than disliked, but it's also frustrating because the potential to be something more than just a borrower and gatherer of the vast source materials it intertwines in the story is never realized. Spielberg has delivered a movie that's undeniably fun and brimming with energy that's highly impressive from the master in his 70s that harkens back to his glory days, but he also leans too heavily on his worst impulses in electing for simple solutions to complicated problems and too little imagination in the story this film is trying to tell for it to be anything more.

6/10

Ready Player One(4/1/2018)

Ernest Cline’s book “Ready Player One” was this weird sounding science fiction book I used to hear about here and there. I never read it, in part because I rarely have time to read fiction in general much less novelty books about video games, but the title was clever and as literature of questionable merit goes I’ve certainly heard of dumber sounding ideas and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. There was, however, something of a backlash to the novel with a lot of people finding it to be total pandering nonsense and I could certainly see how that could be true as well. What I never did was pick up a copy of the book myself to judge because, well, life’s too short. Honestly there was always something that seemed kind of weird about the backlash against the book. Like, if you’re so above this kind of thing why are you even reading this whole nearly 400 page book? Hatewatching sort of makes sense to me in moderation, hate reading does not. Fortunately there is finally a way to get a taste of what Cline was up to without having to be seen lugging around his tome: they’ve adapted it into a major motion picture directed by, implausibly enough, Steven Spielberg himself.

Ready Player One is set in the year 2045 after a series of calamities society has become something of a shithole where everyone lives in bombed out slums where the only escape is into a video game like virtual reality universe called “The Oasis” where everyone can be what they want to be and engage in mass combat in order to get loot. This world was created by a guy named James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who was a huge geek obsessed with the pop culture of the late 20th Century. After Halliday died it was discovered that he had devised an elaborate scavenger hunt within The Oasis involving three keys that can be found by solving riddles and the prize is that once all the keys are found the entire Oasis is put under the control of whoever finds all three first. One of the people who has been seeking out these keys for years is a teenager named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), who plays in the Oasis under the alias “Parzival” and has been obsessively studying the life of James Halliday and the movies and video games that he as so interested in. His search for these “Easter eggs” is bolstered when he encounters another legendary Oasis dweller named Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) but if he wants to get all the keys he’ll have to contend with a private army of “sixers” that are deployed by a CEO named Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) who wants to claim the prize for his company and thus gain control of the world’s richest company and the center of world culture.

When it was announced early on that Steven Spielberg would be directing an adaptation of “Ready Player One” it certainly seemed like an odd choice to me. Cline’s book seemed like it was very much the manifestation of a Generation X and Millennial conception of culture, of people who grew up on Spielberg’s films rather than Spielberg himself. It’s a project that would make all the sense in the world coming from J.J. Abrams or from the creators of “Stranger Things” but from Spielberg himself? That threw me for a bit of a loop, but it perhaps makes more sense when you remember that Spielberg’s own movies were very much a collection of references themselves. Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example, lifts all sorts of shots from the adventure serials of Spielberg’s youth and if you look closely at E.T. or War of the Worlds it becomes abundantly clear they were made by a guy raised on paranoid science fiction movies from the 50s. The difference is that Ready Player One is even more upfront than Tarantino about exactly what it’s lifting and is making the lifts part of the story rather than bending it into a new one. For instance, early on there’s a race of sorts in The Oasis where our hero is driving the DeLorean from Back to the Future, Art3mis appears to be racing one of the hoverbikes from Akira, and they need to race past a T-Rex from Jurassic Park, and find some way to keep from being attacked by King Kong. We have seen these sort of “copyright violation en masse” ideas before, perhaps most notably in Disney’s Wreck-it-Ralph and the ImaginationLand episodes of “South Park,” but never this extensively or at this scale.

It takes a couple of leaps of logic to accept The Oasis as a concept. For example it’s certainly not clear how the economy of the real world works in this future or where all these destitute people get the money to play these video games all day. The death system in The Oasis also seems a bit off. It’s established early on that if you “die” in The Oasis your character does re-spawn but you lose all the stuff you earned along the way, which makes sense given that there does need to be some stakes to the action scenes here, but that seems like quite the penalty. Even the Dark Souls games aren’t that harsh when your character dies. Are we supposed to believe that all these characters have gone for years in all these warzones and haven’t died once? It’s also a little unclear who’s programming all of this. The opening voiceover seems to suggest that you can be whatever you want in this world but the characters can’t exactly conjure things up at will so someone has to be actually creating all this stuff. It’s also a bit curious that these characters are so infatuated with the pop culture of the 80s rather than anything that’s been created since and we never once see Watts step out of the Oasis to watch an actual 2D movie or TV show. There’s this big plot point which suggests that he’s an ace Atari 2600 player, which… I’m old enough to be into some pretty old school video games and even I don’t have the patience to play 2600 games and if I had access to The Oasis I sure as hell wouldn’t take time out of my day to play Pitfall.

Despite all of that, Spielberg does doe a commendable job of bringing The Oasis to life. The inside of The Oasis appears to be entirely CGI with all the characters being represented by avatars. This shouldn’t work and should be highly distracting and yet Spielberg somehow makes it work. The Oasis really does kind of look like a real video game but twenty years in the future and in VR rather than something like The Matrix. It also makes action scenes which would feel absurd in any other context sort of work. Like, that race I was talking about earlier with the T-Rex and King Kong would seem stupid and over-the-top in a movie set in any kind of “real” world, but it fits pretty well in a movie that’s supposed to be a video-game player’s psyche writ large. There’s also a set-piece related to a classic movie midway through the film which I won’t give away but needless to say it’s quite the sight to see and it’s not something you are likely to see much of anywhere else. I’m not going to claim to be above geeking out at some of the parade of references here, some of them certainly caused a visceral reaction when they emerged. It would have been nice if they’d dug even deeper with some of the namedrops but given that this is such an unabashed celebration of low culture even that kind of seems fitting.

The human side of the story is… serviceable. If anything I feel like being “serviceable” is kind of a victory given how easily this gamer wish-fulfillment fantasy could have descended into cringey territory. The romance plotline between Watts and Art3mis is certainly kind of groan-inducing, especially when Watts declares that he “loves” her based almost entirely on the fact that she’s really good at the film’s central video game. From what I hear this element is even worse in the book but I do think the actors here do a fairly good job of salvaging this sub-plot and keeping it from dragging the film down too far. In general the movie does a pretty good job of finding this nice tone where it doesn’t take itself too seriously but also doesn’t turn the whole thing into such a joke that you aren’t able to really get involved in the story. At the end of the day this is a pretty shallow movie and it certainly doesn’t do nearly as much as it could have to push back on some of the fan-servicey elements of its source material. By the end it seems to suggest that the point of all this is that you should engage in fandom with a degree of moderation and not let it get too much in the way of “real life” but I’m not so sure that the movie that proceeds this moral really supports the thesis. This certainly isn’t a Spielberg classic and I still have trouble really thinking about it as one of his films, but for what it is and what it wants to be I think it’s pretty successful. I certainly had a lot of fun with it anyway.

***1/2 out of Five

Yes, but it was in a sea of perfect Hollywood actors in million of movies. It rang untrue. I wasn't expecting Elephant Man, but the casting was cowardly.

Definitely more fun than I expected it to be. That extended riff on a certain classic horror movie was easily the highlight. That was neat, though it does show that Spielberg is definitely more comfortable with the film references than the videogame ones. The final battle is a bit too cluttered for my taste and while the narrative works, it has some shortcomings. The villain gets ridiculous by the film's climax, the love story is indeed kind of lame, and the film relies on voice over way too much. The film also has some cringy moments here and there.

Ultimately, I had fun and I'm glad I saw it, but like Doomsday said in the first review, this isn't really a movie that's going to last. As for contextualizing it within Spielberg's filmography - it's probably his best "fun" film in a few years, but that's largely because most of his "fun" movies lately have been misfires. It certainly doesn't hold a candle to the adventure movies he was making in his prime, and I also don't think it's as good as The Post, Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, or Munich. Not even close.

Haven't read the book.

I expected this to be a heaping pile of "oh look at this nostalgic nerd stuff and how cool it is" fest. I did not get that, thankfully. I thought it was quite cool that there was a world built with a VR component to it, and that VR world consisted of familiar settings and places, but provided players with games within those settings using those familiar items/avatars/weapons, etc.

The plot was a little telegraphed, and some things I saw coming a mile away, but this kind of follows a trope-formula I'm very used to and loved back in the 90s where a guy down on his luck falls in love with a girl he can't quite catch, and manages to save the day along the way, get the girl, and have cool adventures along the way (think "Encino Man," for example).

I liked the clues and puzzle aspect to it, I liked all the characters, I never felt bored, and I quite enjoyed myself throughout.

8/10

?

Haven't read the book but I enjoyed this it kinda dragged towards the end though 8/10