Movie Review: “Ready Player One”

“I’ll wave to you from the finish line, McFly” — Art3mis in “Ready Player One”

First things first...

I need to give some love to Steven Spielberg. The preeminent sci-fi/action director of the 1980s is back. Just when you thought the 71-year-old storyteller had permanently settled into vanity projects like “Lincoln” and “Bridge of Spies,” he decides to do a flashy popcorn movie that makes a statement. 

Way to show you still got it, Spielberg! 

“Ready Player One” is based on Ernest Cline’s science fiction novel of the same name — an engrossing ode to 1980s pop culture. I reviewed the novel in 2017 (click here to read my review).

Before I talk about “Ready Player One” (the film), I should get something out of the way. The movie adaptation varies wildly from Cline’s novel. For fans of the book, that fact means the RPO movie is both a jarring ride, and a wholly original experience. 

Don’t be wary. Cline was involved every step of the way (he penned the screenplay with Zak Penn). 

“Ready Player One” tells the story of teen Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan). Watts lives in the year 2045 in Columbus, OH (it was Oklahoma City in the novel). Earth in that era is largely dystopian in nature (early in the movie, they mention societal unrest from a “Corn Syrup Drought” and “Bandwidth Riots”). Watts lives in the “stacks” — mobile homes and RVs piled high on stilts — with his aunt.

Most of Earth’s inhabitants spend their days in the OASIS — a virtual reality world created by a software developer named James Halliday. Wade is fully ensconced in the OASIS, and roots around for fun and reward via his avatar “Parzival.”

The reclusive creator of the OASIS leaves a short video message when he dies. He has hidden an Easter egg somewhere in the virtual world. The individual who finds the egg wins control of the virtual world (along with a cash prize). But the task requires solving three seemingly impossible tasks. 

Wade and his fellow “gunters” (a fusion of “egg hunters”) obsess over the search, and analyze various aspects of Halliday’s life to find three keys in their pursuit (references involve 1980s pop culture — including movies and videogames of the era). 

Watts has a friend in the virtual world named Aech (Lena Waithe) who helps him in his quest. He also has a rival/crush named Art3mis (Olivia Cooke). 

In addition to the “gunters” searching for clues, a corporation named Innovative Online Industries (IOI) is in the hunt. The communications conglomerate is trying to gain permanent control over the OASIS so they can fully monetize the artificial world. Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) is the CEO — and main antagonist in the “Ready Player One.” 

 

That’s the setup for the story. From there on out, “Ready Player One” basically becomes “Raiders of the Lost Binary Code.” 

Viewers are treated to a variety of pop culture nuggets strewn throughout the film.

For example, Wade/Parzival and Art3mis dance in The Distracted Globe nightclub to the Bee Gee’s song “Stayin’ Alive” — on a floor that looks like it stepped out of the Odyssey Disco Club in the movie “Saturday Night Fever”:

There are references to films like “Back to the Future” and “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.” Wade’s avatar drives Doc Brown’s DeLorean from BTTF — which features K.I.T.T.’s pulsing light from the TV series “Knight Rider”:

I learned after I saw the movie that a Gremlin makes an appearance somewhere in the movie. I didn’t see it, but Steven Spielberg mentions it in this interview on NBC’s “Today Show”:

While some of these references stray from the book (it was likely an insane task trying to secure the rights to the varying properties featured in the novel), the filmmakers do a decent job coming up with relevant substitutes.

Of those new references, I liked the OASIS game piece called the “Zemeckis Cube” — basically a Rubik’s Cube that (once solved) can be used to turn the clock back 60 seconds (named after “Back to the Future” director Robert Zemeckis). 

The main concern I had going into this adaptation of “Ready Player One” had to do with how “compelling” it would be watch digital avatars for most of the story’s narrative. 

Spielberg does well balancing real-world interactions with the avatar world. Wade gets to meet the human counterparts to Aech and Art3mis (among others) within a reasonable amount of time.

Let me put it this way: the movie tries diligently to avoid becoming a tome geared solely to video game geeks. I think Spielberg is largely successful in that quest. 

Composer Alan Silvestri (“Back to the Future”) serves up the musical score for “Ready Player One” (largely futuristic-sounding compositions), and the movie also features a healthy does of popular songs from the 1980s. 

Spielberg told Billboard magazine how he selected the classic ‘70s and ‘80s tunes for the movie (click here to read the article). The track list includes “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.

While a movie is never able to fully capture the immersive feel a first-person novel can invoke, “Ready Player One” does a solid job capturing the tone and feel Cline was going for. It is paced well, and rarely lets off the accelerator. 

Spielberg has created a sci-fi movie that tastes like a bowl of Lucky Charms chased down with a box of Hi-C Ecto Cooler — sugary fun that’s a sweet head rush.

In a world where so many sci-fi/fantasy movies are rehashes and reboots of older material, it is rather unusual to see something that feels fresh and new. 

That, my friends, is worth applauding. 

Previous post: Book Review: "Night School" By Lee Child