Movie Reviews
Year: 2018
Genre: Sci-Fi Action
Directed: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hanna John-Kamen, Ralph Ineson, Susan Lynch, Perdita Weeks
Ready Player One is a Steven Spielberg directed blockbuster movie based on the Ernest Cline novel of the same name. The story follows an enterprising eighteen-year-old named Wade (Sheridan) who, much like the rest of humanity in 2045, spends most of his time in The Oasis, an interactive virtual reality world. “The real world sucks,” says Wade as justification for his hours of play time as his alter ego Parzival. But when the death of Oasis creator James Halliday (Rylance) sets off an elaborate treasure hunt, Parzival along with his friends Art3mis (Cooke), Aech (Waithe), Daito (Morisaki) and Sho (Zhao) all race to collect three keys. Said keys unlock a secret Easter egg, long ago hidden in the game that grants the winner of the contest full control of The Oasis.
Part of the challenge to translating the story of Ernest Cline’s novel is introducing a sci-fi dystopian future where there are countless moving parts, loads of exposition and interconnected minutiae and, I can’t stress this enough, a treasure trove of geek-culture references. Director Steven Spielberg, an unabashed top-tier, popular culture producer himself makes a wise decision by completely omitting most of the geek ephemera from the story proper and instead concentrates on the mechanics of the plot. There are a lot of references, don’t get me wrong, but they’re there for the sake of being there and neither add nor take anything away from Parzival’s treasure hunt or character growth.
Of course, this becomes less of an asset and more of a liability as the plot drudge forth, and the polish of the special-effects becomes less beguiling. There are a handful of “eureka” moments stressed by the segments of the Back to the Future score, where characters draw a connection between this or that and Halliday’s curiously curated thoughts, memories and psychology. This proves un-engaging as we only get to know Halliday through archival footage (?) and due to the firmly established rules of the game; we know the “clues” just have to come from him. We’re spoon-fed plot points again and again instead of having an opportunity to actually participate with our heroes.
Granted when compared to the book, using this tact is actually much better. Gone are the puzzles whose measure of success is wholly dependent on whether you’ve seen WarGames (1983) a hundred times; replaced by meaningful “creator” knowledge that actually ignites lasting character changes. But while it definitely works in the service of fleshing out characters that, let’s be honest, need to be fleshed out, it’s not a good way to keep an audience engaged.
Arguably to off-set that, the movie hedges its bets, by focusing as much time on the villains as it does on the heroes. As Parzival, Art3mis, the Big Guy, what’s his name and the other guy do their thing, evil businessman Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn) and his army of “Sixers,” are hot on their heels, hoping the turn “the world’s most valuable resource” (no kidding, the phrase was actually uttered) into a tiered cash cow…because obvious internet neutrality metaphor is obvious.
But even as Ben Mendelsohn does wonders balancing the menace of an omni-powerful corporate suit with the petulance of a John Hughes bad guy, hanging out with him and the constantly vamping Hanna John-Kamen just gets irksome as the film plods along. It would have been a lot better if the movie spent a little more time actually getting to know our heroes outside their avatars or at the very least, get to know why their avatars are their avatars. Seriously, in a world where you can literally be anything you want to be, why would you want to be Mario or Megatron or The Iron Giant over anything else? Seems like that, more than anything, would be a great starting point for getting to know a character. Alas, aside from one solid reality versus virtual reality reveal, the movie doesn’t really do much with that premise.
Thankfully everything the movie does right more than makes up for any lost opportunities. Every artifact and character introduced by the film has their time to shine and because the story comes in such a tight package, we get to share in the triumphs. And because this is a Spielberg joint, Ready Player One comes with his trademarked playfulness and childlike wonder which, let’s face it, has always been enough to make even the blandest of screenplays palatable (cough, cough BFG).
Additionally, there are some real cast standouts. As said before, Mendelsohn is pitch-perfect as our villain even if he does suffer from over-exposure. Likewise, Mark Rylance’s Halliday is arguably more sympathetic than the protagonist despite the fact that he does a marvelous job keeping him as enigmatic as possible. Finally, while T.J. Miller is never seen outside of his avatar and his character mainly exists so audiences can say “hey that’s the voice of T.J. Miller,” he’s just so perfectly casted as the appropriately named “i-R0k”.
“Some people can read ‘War and Peace’ and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.” This quote, along with an elongated plot sequence referencing The Shining (1980) seems to be calling out fans of the book and not in a good way. There are a lot of changes; a lot of, I would argue, good changes that don’t necessarily change the spirit of the story. Nevertheless, there will probably be a small but vocal faction of people who will cry foul over this adaptation-in-name-only and hijack the conversation.
If you’re one of those people, may I offer a slightly different perspective? Maybe instead of arguing over the minutia of a disposable movie adaptation of a disposable book, we should be arguing, or at least wondering aloud how much of today’s culture we actually have control over. After all, full-emersion VR is just around the corner and its actually quite scary to think that as IP law stands now, the only reason you can even see something like Ready Player One in theaters is because there’s only one man alive today who has Spielbergian clout. You try to do the same on Youtube and I guarantee things won’t go well for you.
Final Grade: C+
