In 2045, the world is apparently so wretched that people live for escapism. Columbus, Ohio, is such a highly populated and poorly regulated city that trash is piled almost as high as "the Stacks", a neighborhood of trailer homes on metal scaffolds that reach as high as skyscrapers. This is where Wade Watts lives (played by Tye Sheridan), a young orphan who obsessively lives in the OASIS, a virtual reality where pretty much everyone spends their time. Wade, however, is looking for the ultimate goal: the maker of the OASIS (a typically magnificent Mark Rylance) has included an Easter Egg; its finder will win control over the game.
Thus begins a science fiction adventure not unlike those that made Steven Spielberg famous. Wade gathers a group of oddball friends (including Olivia Cooke), pits himself against industry big-wig and power-mad poser Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), and leads a rebellion against big business seeking monopoly.
Ready Player One is in many ways a game within itself. It's so packed with movie, video game, and tv show references that I don't think there's a single person alive who knows them all. Apart from major set pieces and crucial plot points -- including King Kong and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, Mechagodzilla and the Iron Giant, and a particularly fabulous scene inside The Shining -- almost every scene in the film includes figures such as Marvin the Martian and Freddy Krueger, who appear so quickly and so insignificantly that you could easily miss them. And that's assuming you even know all the references! I certainly didn't know half the things onscreen. At one point during the climax, a kid sitting behind me got excited because a squadron of Halo soldiers ran across the screen. I'm not even sure what Halo is.
These visuals present themselves in a mostly computer-generated world. It's awesome to behold, of course, much like things in The Hobbit or Avatar. Unlike those films, however, I found this movie to be particularly draining to view, because it moves so quickly and includes so much to watch for and pay attention to. There's only so much spectacle I can take before it all turns to mush in my brain, and with two hours and twenty minutes of running time, I was exhausted well before the halfway point.
Spielberg's gifts for amazing filmmaking aside, I did find myself disappointed with the story. It's really not a fresh tale, and it's not told in any original way. Visually, the movie rocks. Narratively, it falls flat, concerns flat characters, and can't outmaneuver sizable plot holes. Often I found myself wondering logistical things about the world of the film rather than giving myself over to the nostalgic pleasure; that detracts from what was obviously intended to be absorbing spectacle.
Then again, maybe that's just because I've never been a pop culture guru. I haven't read the book, but its author is credited as one of the screenwriters, so it's probably a close adaptation; I wonder if the novel suffers the same flaws in construction. But the movie surely speaks mostly to avid players of video games and creative fanatics who love to immerse themselves in fantasies of any media. And for that audience, its final message of taking a break and learning to engage with reality should be particularly poignant.
I don't know. I feel sort of "meh" about the whole thing. I could take it or leave it. It's diverting and fun (especially its soundtrack), but there's not much to chew on. Come for the spectacle, stay for Mark Rylance, and you'll walk out happy.
IMDb: Ready Player One
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