This is our future; you get that right? Well, I dunno so much about the vertically stacked RVs, but sooner or later somebody is going to combine the internet with virtual reality and then make it accessible … for a price. The inevitable “Oasis” probably won’t have quite the Dungeons & Dragons feel as shown in Ready Player One what with everybody being a gamer and lives constantly lost and won, yet I have no doubt this is our future. Years from now, people will communicate with one another through constant cosplay in an artificial world. Trust me, it’s gonna be better than it sounds.
Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) only has a cool name. He’s kinda nerdy, otherwise, especially with selecting his alter ego of round table knight “Parzival.” I’m not sure if school exists anymore in 2045. It did in the book, but there’s no evidence that school happens anywhere near Wade’s massive Columbus trailer park. Wade isn’t technically an orphan … look, if you live in a trailer park with an abusive step-uncle and aunt-enabler (“Aunt Abler?”), no one would blame 
you for escaping into your alter-ego forever. In the world of endless Speed Racer, Wade becomes Parzival, a cool kid with random weaponry and a DeLorean ride for battling it out in the gamer zones. In the Oasis, you can be whomever you want; you can own whatever you want so long as you can win it, afford it, or steal it. In other words, it’s just like real life, only with better graphics.
The Oasis holds one huge secret: it’s up for grabs. Original Oasis architect James Halliday (Mark Rylance) gave a video obituary stating he left the keys to his ride for others to find – one last game for the masses. First one there takes it all. So imagine controlling the internet … the entire internet [including www.steelfrogblog.com!] and you get the stakes involved here. I’m actually a tad surprised whatever exists in 2045 as the US government hasn’t decided to supersede the contest. If the jerks figure they can screw up Net Neutrality, what stops them from imposing laws on the Oasis? I digress. The bad guys here are not government, but pure capitalists — an untouchable CEO (Ben Mendelsohn) and his expendable phalanx of flunkees. Whatever you want in the Oasis, odds are you will have to compete with a teeming of temps, a stream of sycophants, a legion of legman, a yarmy of yesmen.
Bottom line is Halliday has left the world with a giant Easter Egg hunt for his legacy and everybody wants it, yet years have elapsed without any finding the first key. We all guess that the secret lies within Halliday’s personal bromance with his own childhood, hence there is no lack of 70s and 80s references in the film. Wade is (secretly) the world’s greatest authority on Halliday, so we’re guessing he’s going to play a role here, especially as this seems to be his movie. The hunt itself is no different a plot from several movies, the first ones coming to mind are Scavenger Hunt and Candleshoe. Not to say it’s a bad thing; I think more films should involve treasure hunts. And this is a Steven Spielberg treasure hunt. That’s gotta count for something, right?
Did I mention Parzival is in love? Oh, yeah. Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) is a fellow independent scavenger, although a more polished package than the underfunded Parzival. There’s an odd dynamic by which both Art3mis and Parzival prefer their avatars. That seems normal to someone like me who happily goes by “Frog” much of the time, but perhaps strange to many others. We can tell there’s nothing wrong with the human versions of Parzival or Art3mis. Well, Parzival at least. After seeing Olivia Cooke as a spooky unemotional Vulcan in Thoroughbreds, I’m not quite Ready Player One for her to be somebody’s kill screen, dig?
I wonder how much Spielberg was dying to insert himself into this. In essence, Ready Player One is simply a nostalgic peek (and a dope one at that!) at childhood for post-boomers like me. That’s right, show me the Atari 2600 and the Batmobile (which lost a wheel, ha!) and Donkey Kong all to the soundtrack of power anthem like “Jump” and “Take on Me.” With E.T., Jaws, Close Encounters, and three Indiana Jones films during than span, Steven Spielberg has had as much influence as any other late 70s or 80s artist in the world. I’d love to know the dynamic here – was Spielberg embarrassed to namedrop Raiders of the Lost Ark or did an Indiana Jones reference generally not work in the context of 1980s related gamer exploration? And how much subtle Spielberg did I miss?
There is too much
CGI in this film. I know that’s the plot, but it can be overwhelming and leaves the viewer a bit desensitized; I don’t care nearly as much what’s going on in the Oasis as out of it, especially as the avatars are on the cartoonish side. Art3mis, for instance, constantly reminds me of space alien. It’s not unwatchable, just slightly off-putting — per the plan, of course. Spielberg is a great director for taking the burden off the kids. There’s a point about 45 minutes in where Wade is back in the real world with things going on around him and I actually had the thought, “Uh oh, kid, you’re gonna have to start acting now.” It didn’t last long. Pacing is rarely a Spielberg problem.
I don’t want to be that guy, but because of the CGI, I didn’t enjoy Ready Player One as much as the Ernest Cline novel version. I also don’t think the movie RV stacks up well against Steven Spielberg classics. That being said, I do believe this film will last longer than some better Spielbergs. I look forward to seeing it again at some point, which cannot be said of Lincoln or Munich or Amistad, all better films. Is it because the film was exactly made for people like me? Does it matter?
♪A shocking array
I don’t know ‘bout
This cosplay. I’ll wear it anyway
Today’s another day to find clues
Spying by day
One big excuse to cite King MJ
Take off, eh! (Take off, eh!)
Walk this way (You hoser!)
Make my day
It’s all nostalgia♫
Rated PG-13, 140 Minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Zak Penn, Ernest Cline
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Children of the 80s
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: CEOs
♪ Parody Inspired by “Take on Me”
