Adapted from the popular Ernest Cline novel (my review here), and co-written by him and screenwriter Zak Penn, 'Ready Player One' is Spielberg at his blockbuster best again.
When James Halliday (played by Mark Rylance), co-creator the Oasis, a vast VR simulation where users can escape the drudgery and confines of the real world and be whoever they want to be and live out their ultimate fantasies in an online virtual world, dies, this sets in motion Halliday's Easter Egg Hunt - the first to solve all three clues will inherit Halliday's fortune as well as claim sole ownership of the Oasis itself!
As Halliday was obsessed with 80's pop culture, so have the Gunters (Easter Egg Hunters) become obsessed with the retro nostalgia too (much like world of today!). And as a result there are plenty of pop culture references throughout the movie, lots more obvious ones and lots of blink and you'll miss them cameos from film and video games, and you may need multiple viewings if you want to spot them all. Those of a certain age, like myself, will do well to pick up on most of them. One of the negatives I had with with the original book was that I found it was almost a checklist of 80's pop culture at times (especially early on), but in the film, most of the references weren't too in-your-face and they seemed to work very well and was glad that they weren't as heavy handed with them as I has feared it might have been.
The film is from Wade Watts / Parzival's pov (Ty Sheridan), as he tries to solve the puzzles. We get a bit of his back story growing up in The Stacks in Columbus Ohio, and get a sense of how the world is in the near future of 2045. We're given a brief introduction in a voice over from Wade, which sets up the world building and everything you need to know, early on. We also get flashbacks to Halliday's past, as he creates the VR world with his partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), which I thought added a bit more history to the world.
The High Five; the first group of players to feature on the scoreboard, are a group of likeable characters that you want to win to the contest, in particular Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Aech (Lena Waithe), who both seem a bit more fleshed out than in the book, and given more things to do as a result. Mendelsohn's portrayal of IOI boss, Nolan Sorrento, is a fine sleazy corporate villain, as he tries to win the contest, by fair mean or foul (spoiler alert: mostly foul), so that IOI can seize control and monetise the hell out of the Oasis. TJ Miller's I-Rok brings excellent comedic foil to Sorrento in their scenes together as well, very similar to the role Miller has in the 'Deadpool' movie.
The biggest thing I noticed from the movie is how differently some things play out from the book. As such, if you've read the original book, it's probably best to forget about it completely as you settle down to watch the film. I'd say that the film is more inspired by the book than it actually being a adaptation. With the book going one way, and the movie going the other, the changes do make the film a bit better, making it tightly plotted and more faster paced, but I did also wish some bits from the book were still in the film.
As some scenes were filmed there, I also recognised parts of Birmingham in the film, specifically areas around Digbeth (where Wade meets Art3mis in the real world and where the chase scene at the end is set) as well as spotting the exterior of Snow Hill train station (exterior of the IOI HQ). I thought that was funny and pretty cool too!
All in all, it's a fun, fast paced, and enjoyable film with some excellent set pieces (I loved the race for the copper key at the beginning and The Shining scenes were a definite favourite too!) and you may get a bigger kick out of it if you get some of the references and if you're into gaming.
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