Ready Player One lives up to the escapism of its technological premise — the Oasis — and offers us a giddy joyride through the fantasies of a generation of nerds and fanboys.
READY PLAYER ONE (2018) [no spoilers!]
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe
Summary: When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune. (IMBd)
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Even though we love movies that strive to tell us something deep, or current, or inspirational (see: The Shape of Water), we have to admit that there’s something to be said of good movies with little meaning. Okay, like Ready Player One dances around some ideas of the spirit of gaming, or how it should be purely about having fun, or… internet freedom / net neutrality? But these ideas are unclear and not emphasised — the plot functions more as a hedonistic adventure quest than any carrier of meaning. And, to be honest, the movie works best that way. It works best if you just sit back and let the attempts at deeper meaning slip away. (Does this sound like blasphemy after our long Del Toro rants?? maybe >.< At least it’s vastly more entertaining than Pacific Rim Uprising)
As with most Spielberg films, this movie features some real technical feats. The opening sequence — the introduction to Oasis — is a dizzying series of different worlds flashing by, all rendered in stunning CGI. It brings to life the 80s and 90s pop culture that our parents would probably recognise better than we do, but wraps it all up in an accessible sense of nostalgia that younger audience would still get. Much of the movie is actually in CGI (with the main character, Parzival, looking weirdly anime-style), but the cuts between real life and Oasis are surprisingly not jarring, for the most part. That was because, in story construction, they managed to raise the stakes pretty evenly in both the real world and the virtual such that cutting between them never really caused a loss in plot momentum. (Which … isn’t really as hard as cutting between different story arcs / character narratives [see: Game of Thrones] because this plot is technically just one arc? Just different “locations”)
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Dialogue was actually pretty smooth, though some lines didn’t really land with enough weight to be taken seriously (e.g “A fanboy can always tell a hater” [I laughed in the theatre]). -- Actually, on the subject of weight and taking things seriously: Most stories about gaming always end up struggling between trying to raise the stakes of the story and the no-consequences nature of games. For example, anime about characters getting stuck in a game usually skirt this issue by making it such that if their avatars die, the characters will die in real life as well -- a good example being:
Unlike SAO, Ready Player One doesn’t try to confront the problem. Instead, it acknowledges that characters are slipping and sliding in and out of Oasis, and uses it to raise the stakes in real life (for those who’ve watched it: 3rd act, transition from mechagodzilla to the real world) which is really commendable! And definitely better than SAO :')
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To be frank, the light-hearted no-consequence feel of the movie is actually really fun and fresh. Ready Player One has everything that makes feel-good entertainment, and goes all out with it — so much so that we don’t mind that it doesn’t have much depth!
Anyway give Ready Player One a watch!! It’s worth it — 7/10 (wow haven’t done ratings in a while).
PS if you’ve seen it and have comments / disagree / agree with us, feel free to dm!
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