Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018) *Spoiler Free*

Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018) Spoiler Free

I'm not familiar with the book Ready Player One is based upon, and I haven't really played computer games since leaving my teens behind at the end of the 1980's - though that last point puts me in just the right demographic to enjoy the eighties nostalgia of this film.

When I saw the trailer last year it looked fun, fast paced, and packed with so many references to other movies - on scale not seen since Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It felt like a movie I needed to see.

Set in the not too far distant future (2045) the plot is centered around a virtual reality world, called the Oasis, that seemingly everyone is plugged into to escape having to deal with real life.

When Oasis creator, Halliday (Mark Rylance) dies he challenges everyone to find the ultimate game Easter egg that will allow them to become his successor to owning the game world and his fortune.

The story then follows Wade (Tye Sheridan) and his group of friends as they attempt to solve the puzzles that will unlock the egg. Upping the stakes is a very determined corporate leader, Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), a one time prodigy of Halliday, who will stop at nothing to find the Easter egg before anyone.

As a movie Ready Player One states right from the start what it is and doesn't really deviate. It's a fun ride, where we get to watch the various players try to complete the game quest set before them. There are some surface level messages about social media like, not everyone is the same in real life as their online persona, and spending too much time playing computer games is probably not a good thing, but it doesn't get any deeper than that.

Personally I did enjoy Ready Player One but it wasn't quite what I was expecting (bearing in mind my entire impression of the film going in was from one trailer). In the trailer we see vistas of a slum city trailer park unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's like the world is so over populated that they just started stacking trailers on top of trailers to create cheap housing instead of building actual cheap housing apartments.

Ready Player One - Trailer Park Slums

To me, that world, which is the real world in the movie, looked way more interesting than the game world. I think I wanted to see more of that, and the characters who might live there than what I got.

The real world is where the real stakes happen but I got the impression the movie was holding back some what in order to avoid anything harsher than a PG-13 rating. Most of the film happens in the Oasis where, if you die, you can just start again - though I'm pretty sure hardened gamers will tell you that's a big deal when you've put weeks (even years) of time into your character to level them up.

I found it hard to connect with the characters in a way that really made me care about them. Wade we meet in the real world right from the start but we don't learn enough about him to be too invested before meeting his Oasis avatar/persona. Everyone else we meet in the Oasis first. This disconnect between the real world and the Oasis kind of works against getting to know the real people behind the avatars. Which is possibly why I thought we'd see a lot more of the real world than the Oasis.

I will say, don't go into this film just for the nostalgia cameos. Some of them are so quick you won't even be sure if you saw them. As fun as it is to spot the various references to pop culture, the speed at which they happen is deliberately designed to prevent you from being too distracted by them. I never found myself playing 'spot the cameo' for very long, even in scenes where there are a lot of cameos to spot.

Overall Ready Player One is a fun movie with visually stunning CGI that all looks very convincing, given that it didn't need to be, since we know it's all happening in a computer game. At no point did poor CGI take me out of the film.

It never gets too deep into teaching life lessons or examining social issues, though you could probably glean a bit more from it than I did if you really wanted to analyse the movie. It's pretty much Steven Spielberg doing what he does best, fun adventure films that entertain you for a couple of hours. It may appeal more to long time gamers but there's enough there for most people with a passing interest in technology and social media to enjoy.

Comments

TV Series Review: Skeleton Crew (2024) (Disney+) No Spoilers

I f you saw the trailer for Skeleton Crew and decided the show looked too much like Star Wars for little kids, and didn't watch, you missed out on a real treat. While I will say this show was definitely targeted at bringing in younger fans to the Star Wars universe, it is very much more like family viewing than kids only TV. Not to mention, characters are literally gunned down or murdered on this show, but without the really graphic violence you might see on a more adult orientated show. It's actually no more kid only orientated than the first series of Stranger Things (2016), or even the original Star Wars (1977) movie. In fact the whole show is a not so subtle homage to original Star Wars (1977), Treasure Island (1950), and eighties movies like The Goonies (1985), ET (1982), Explorers (1985) and others. The plot is very straight forward. A group of children, living in the Star Wars equivalent of the suburbs, find an aband...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

TV Series Review: Creature Commandos (2024) No Spoilers

O fficially, Creature Commandos is the first show of James Gunn's kind of reboot of the DCU. Technically though, it starts with James Gunn's, The Suicide Squad , and includes his series, Peacemaker , as the events of both are either referenced or felt within the show. Potentially that means Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn in the DCU, but I'd be surprised if she would even want another crack at it, let alone that James didn't recast the role. However that's a whole other rabbit hole for a character that may not appear again for at least a few more years. Creature Commandos is Suicide Squad but with monsters, and no real threat of Suicide - well, having your head blown off if you stray from the mission at least. Though I don't recall that being a thing in Gunn's Suicide Squad movie since the team was renamed 'Task Force X'? Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) somehow still has a job, but is no longer allowed to use humans on her team, so she assembles a team of...

Meanwhile, In Australia... The World's Most Boring Government Is Fine... We're All Fine.

That's um... What's his name? T o be honest, I stopped following politics in Australia years ago. The only time I check in is usually around election time just to see which set of woke lefty independents, I'm going to vote for, ahead of my fallbacks of the Greens, and then Labor. Despite my sister trying to categorise me as more of a 'left brained' person I definitely lean 'right brained' more at home with my cry baby, woke, alphabet, lefty people. (For the record, if this is the first musing of mine you've ever read, I'm a straight white male who identifies as an artist... Male artist - just in case you were thinking artist is some new kind of gender you hadn't heard of). This year is an election year for our Federal Government, potentially the world's most boring government, for no other reason than during its entire term, if you asked me who was our Prime Minister I'd actually have to stop and think for a moment. Maybe our 31st PM shou...

Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions - Doing Less to Skateboard More

This was my second heelflip attempt of the day. I was pleased I at least got the full rotation even if I didn't land it. I am determined to keep skating for as long as possible, though, since my last post in May 2024, about reigniting my kickflip battle at age 54 , I've probably been skateboarding less than I had hoped. Still haven't landed that elusive kickflip either. Strangely I've been wanting to film myself skateboarding again but have been reluctant to do so because it can be a bit of a hassle trying to create interesting content, not to mention a lot of editing, if you want to capture the full journey of learning a trick. I really hate editing. Looking at my camera equipment the other day I was thinking what is the most minimal setup that I can put together that would make it easy to film skate videos anywhere? I landed on using my Samsung A13, Android phone, mounted on a GoPro selfie stick that has a tripod base in the handle, and a wireless mic I bought some t...

The Path to Becoming a Successful Visual Artist Selling Work for Thousands, or Even Millions of Dollars

I'm calling this, 'Stand Up Comedian'. Image by Leonardo.ai and TET. I consider myself to be a successful working artist. I use the term 'working' quite loosely but basically what I mean is I work for myself, I earn money from my art or knowledge, and most of my time I can create art that interests me. I've never been motivated to be a 'career' artist. By that I mean, an artist whose work is displayed in all the top galleries, and that the super rich buy as more of an investment for wealth, than a love of art. Which is not to say these investors don't love art but when you're buying a single artwork for thousands, or even millions, of dollars, you're generally looking for a return on that investment too. That said, I'm not opposed to artists who want that kind of recognition. Certainly, if you're prepared to do the work, in countries like Australia, you can earn a nice passive income off the secondary market. Which means each time yo...

Squeezing the Toothpaste: A Metaphor

I remember when toothpaste was sold in a metal tube. Back then, as a child, you'd cop it from Mum or Dad if you squeezed the tube anywhere but from the bottom. You could even buy special keys that would wind the toothpaste tube up from the bottom so you could get every last bit of paste - no wastage. Then along came the plastic tubes. Finally you could squeeze anywhere and the tube would retain its shape - or so they said in the sales pitch. For the most part this was true. It wasn't as much of a problem squeezing the new plastic tube from the top. Squeezing toothpaste from the tube was now easy - or so you thought. The thing about squeezing the tube from the top (or even the middle) is that it leaves some of the paste at the bottom. Eventually you do have to spend extra time pushing the paste from the bottom up into the top of the tube. Not like the old days when squeezing from the bottom meant you got just the right amount of paste and the tube was always ready for the next p...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog