Ready Player One - Review

Ready Player One

It’s fair to say that Steve Spielberg is a legendary film maker. Financially his films have grossed as a Producer worldwide $7,629,730,418 and as a Director $4,533,066,008 (some of these totals cross populate one another). So when it is announced he is working on a new project, just like Pavlov’s dog reaction to the bell I auto react by buying a ticket and seeing his latest regardless of the subject. Such was the case in the way of a millennial-ish focused subject about video games and virtual reality in “Ready Player One” starring Olivia Cooke who is also in the currently released noir film “Thoroughbreds”  and Tie Sheridan who’s previous works include the “Mud”,  “X-Men: Apocalypse”  and “Last Days in the Desert”.

“Ready Player One” takes place in the year 2045 in Columbus, Ohio with an opening scene where we see an area called the “STACKS”. An endless vista of gutted out Winnebago’s, trailer homes, SUV’s and railway cars all vertically attached to one another like “Jenga Blocks” serving as the primary homes of the future working middle class. More so they are an early visual cue to a future place and time where humanity could be on the precipice of a collapse. And while financial wealth is still highly treasured and fought for by the masses of people living there, the daily pursuits of achieving salvation from religion - material wealth -  possessions is not. Instead their daily salvation is achieved by living and playing in the OASIS. An expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Oscar winner Mark Rylance “Bridge of Spies)). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune of $500T to the first person to find three keys that lead to a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS game, sparking a contest that grips the entire planet. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

REVIEW: “Ready Player One” is part live action, part animation, part emotional nostalgia, part homage to classic movie scenes, part lots of video game speak, part love story, part children’s amusement park ride, part fairy tail and part commentary that humans day to day reality just plain old sucks.

Structurally as a standalone film while it is an abundantly lively effort to watch and be entertained by it never spends any time offering up any deeper or wide moral themes to speak of as many previous Spielberg’s films have been in fused with in the past. And that is OK. Instead it’s more of crammed up complex special effects marvel to just have fun with. A cornucopia of endless exciting imaginative visuals from scene to scene. But while it passes the eye test with exceptionally high passing marks it did have for its written material a slightly incoherent storyline that seemingly at times was in a bit of a desperate struggle to keep steady pace with what we are seeing. Trust me not every scene or every consequential pivotal moment in this film is going make complete and total sense. So at some point if you see this you will probably do  as I did by accepting the films execution for what it was doing and just enjoy the ride………………So as they say,  "When in Rome …”.

This is one of the very rarest of films that will either bore some into a total catatonic state or fill others up with pure exhilarating entertaining joy for its whirl roller coast ride of imagination of color, sounds and adventurous wonderment. But the one thing it objectively will never be with a running time of 2:19 minute is not having enough fascinating stuff for you to see. Spielberg definitely worked his special effects people into bloody keyboard fingers overtime hell making this latest work.

In the end “Ready Player One” does offer up one subtle nuance narrative message about how humanity will view its “ART” in the future. Specifically, whether in the realms of art forms from music, plays, paintings, TV, movies and or video games, will humanity be merely satisfied with just sitting passively back to taking a one way journey of sights and sounds entering our ears and eyes senses or will the continuous evolution of humanity’s insatiable desire to learn more, to do more, to experience more evolve through a need for participatory interaction between minds, machines and the expression of art itself. 

Will the basic necessities of having a meaningful life demand we be a part in the creative process of the “Art” we consume and be entertained by?  Do we in the future routinely and casually enter some virtual reality world to interact with the likes of a futuristic Leonardo DaVinci or a Bruce Springsteen helping them create and craft their version of the next “Mona Lisa” with more or less of a gazing faint smile to appeal to our unique sense of beauty? Do we help a future “Boss” write a new “Born to Run” song with more violins than guitars just to please our musical appeal and allure? It’s something to think about, because it’s coming.

3.00 Stars