A Reel Review: READY PLAYER ONE

The term “pop culture” is generally defined as a set of items that are dominant in a culture at any given point in time, with today’s modern version heavily influenced by the movies, books, music, and video games of the last 20 to 30 years. Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One is a loving homage to it all, as his characters journey through a virtual world populated by creatures, characters, places, and objects that have dominated popular films and other mass media. On paper, there was probably no other director to bring the story to the big screen better than the man who has influenced modern pop culture the most, the famed director Steven Spielberg.

The year is 2045, and with the Earth in disrepair, humans escape their misery and poverty through the OASIS, a massive virtual-reality program where anyone can be anything and go anywhere. Before dying, the program’s creator (Mark Rylance), obsessed with pop culture, placed hidden “Easter eggs” in the program with a standing challenge for anyone to find them, with the grand prize being complete control over the OASIS. Wade (Tye Sheridan) finds one of the clues, and earns the wrath of a corporate competitor, led by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn).

Staying true to the spirit of the 1980’s, the era in which Spielberg made his most popular films, READY PLAYER ONE unspools as a loving homage (much like the novel) to the kids-on-a-quest adventure tale. Wade and his companions (wonderfully played by Olivia Cooke, Lena Waithe, Phillip Zhao, and Win Morisaki), journey through the OASIS discovering clues, avoiding perils, solving puzzles, and gaining upgrades to their abilities all while the corporate villains stalk their real-life bodies in the real world. The adventures through the OASIS are a joy to take in for anyone who has been paying attention to the last 30 years, as characters encounter (for starters), King Kong, Godzilla, Freddy Krueger…and race around in vehicles such as the Bigfoot truck, the 1960’s Batmobile, and a certain time-travelling DeLorean. Every item, creature, and music cue is used to perfection, as Spielberg, through masterful editing, knows exactly what belongs where.

With such a fantastical world at play, effort has to made to add some sort of grounding material to keep the human side alive. Everything that happens in the OASIS has little effect to everyone in the real world, and even though Spielberg does some brilliant cutting back and forth between the two, the stakes in the real world seem very small; just an effort to thwart off a corporate takeover. Wade himself seems to have very little of a personal story to fuel his desire to win it all, which makes it very difficult for the audience to care if characters survive an attack by a giant CGI gorilla.

READY PLAYER ONE still delivers a massive wallop of entertainment. The energy is extremely high without feeling frantic, and Spielberg hits all the right emotional beats where it counts. Action sequences ranging from racing to hand-to-hand combat to large-scale battles are a joy. Pop culture items are used to great effect, and a sequence involving a certain haunted hotel from a certain Stanley Kubrick masterpiece is simply breathtaking. Visual effects are very good, and the number of items from the last 30 years of movies that are crammed in here almost demand a second viewing; there’s no way anyone can see them all the first time out.

The goddam 3D is very good.

Tye Sheridan plays his part very well, and his chemistry with Olivia Cooke…both in and out of the virtual reality world, gives the film a lot of heart. Ben Mendelsohn is brilliant as always. The rest of the cast is equally wonderful.

Throughout the course of the film, Spielberg seems to have a little bit to say about today’s society; specifically, how much time we spend online, and the dangers of letting a person on the other end of the internet mess with us too much. These are great themes that are only lightly explored, and cheat the film out of a deeper message. Despite this and a few minor flaws, READY PLAYER ONE still lands as a blast of entertainment. Much like the book, it is made for those of us who have learned all they need to know about life from the movies, video games, music, and books…and any child of the 1980’s will find much to enjoy.

BOTTOM LINE: See it