As we progress further into the future, we have two worlds
to contend with, starting with the real, dull one and the virtual one where
anything is possible. This is the
conceit for the nostalgia driven, video game adventure known as “Ready Player
One” by author Ernest Cline. His book
was a love letter and reference haven for 1980’s pop culture but media in
general from video games to TV shows and films.
It was a loved and popular book upon its release in 2011 until upon
closer examination/critical eye as well as the shifting social norms of gender
equality; time has not been kind to it.
However, we have Steven Spielberg taking on the director’s seat along
with Zak Penn with Ernest Cline writing the screenplay for the film adaptation
of this book. Does it completely come
together and prove that Spielberg’s got the magic touch for genre films or has
he lost his ability to provide any spark of creativity and magic to his films
outside of period dramas? Let’s dive into
the Oasis and see just how this virtual playground works.
It is the year 2045 and the world has crumbled from
pollution and corporate interests sapping the resources dry, along with people
living in trailer park complexes known as The Stacks. This is where Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) lives
with his surrogate family as a down and out of luck teenage kid that spends
most of his time as Parzival in the digital world called The Oasis. It is a computerized universe where anything
is possible, but it was created to the likes, favorites, and whims of its
creator James D. Halliday (Mark Rylance) who loved all things 80’s pop culture
but included everyone’s love of the other decades as well. He left a quest line open for those
interested in pursuing it upon his death by the way of an Easter Egg through 3
trials locked away by 3 different keys.
Those that could find the keys and clear each challenge would not only
complete the quest but also inherit $500 billion dollars and owner of the
Oasis. It has been a sought-after prize
for as long as the Oasis has existed.
However, all that is going to change when Wade discovers the
first clue that leads him to the first key and finally the first trial. However, his rival Art3mis (Olivia Cooke)
follows right behind him along with his buddy Aech (Lena Waithe) and two other
players from Japan called Gunters, seekers of the Easter Egg named Daito (Win
Morisaki) and Shoto (Philip Zhao).
Finally, on their heels both digital and for real, Nolan Sorrento (Ben
Mendelsohn) himself, the CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI for short)
hell bent on winning the prize with his legion of gamer soldiers as well as
using dirty and deadly ways to win the quest at all cost. It becomes a race and deadly game of
questing, friendship, romance, betrayal, and war for control of not just the
Oasis but the very future of the world.
It is clearly its own story with only certain elements from
plot to action beats used from the book, but it captures the fun and
adventurous spirit of the story with spades, somewhat. This is a rather odd critique here but, it is
at its best when we see the Oasis as well as the trials/challenges they work
through but not when it focuses on the real world or even the teenagers, kids,
and young adults that drive these avatars.
The problem is we are only given a few times to develop the characters
from their typical arcs or even connect with them before the next action
sequence kicks in. It goes more along
the lines of the standard hero’s journey from loser to hero arc that we have
seen done better and more inspired than in this film.
It is disappointing to say that Spielberg plays it safe with
this film and goes through the routine of telling a fun if shallow action
adventure story with perhaps the best and most inspired 2nd act that truly
shows what the film should have been the whole time. With no spoilers, it is a loving tribute and
homage to a filmmaker’s classic film, recreated meticulously with love and
respect for that film. It is in that
sequence that the film comes the closet to capturing the sheer zany fun and
nostalgia inspired genius that made the book iconic and loved when it first
came out. The rest of the film never
truly lives up to its video game adventure premise, from the awkwardly
expository beginning to the overly stuffed and bloated third act. It never earns the message it tries to
deliver at the end about the dangers of VR as well as relying on nostalgia and
pop culture as an escape from reality.
It never bothers with developing those themes as it solely wants to
entertain and nothing else.
It doesn’t help that the real world is never truly explored
or developed to understand why everyone is living in The Oasis. Also, the logistics of the technology seems
to have its own questionable functions, but the film moves so fast in pacing,
that it never truly takes the time to at least let the viewers be part of the
world within this story. There is also a
romance between the leads that feels forced and rushed along with zero chemistry
to buy their affections for one another so quickly. They did get rid of at least the creepy
components to the story-line but it comes at the cost of feeling like an add-on
that goes no where just like the thrown in references that actually played a
big part of the story or action sequences in the book but never given context
during the translation of the story into the script adapted for the big
screen. The story has its moments of
excitement and ingenious use of nostalgia to create a cool sequence or related
to the quest but anything real world related or focusing on the characters
themselves falls flat and dull.
The characters in their arcs and motivations have been
completely changed for the better by simplifying their development and relying
more on chemistry and group interactions to make them shine in the film. Wade Watts is the typical generic zero to
hero character that is at least made decent to at least follow along, with the
fine if bland performance from Tye Sheridan.
The main stand out was Olivia Cooke as Art3mis, who is given clear
motivations and gives a committed, charismatic performance that makes her a
character that is easiest to root for.
As for Ben Mendelson as the villainous Sorrento, he really hams it up
with his performance and comes across as an inept cartoon villain literally,
but he is still fun to watch as the new go-to villainy casted actor. These are the main characters that we follow
throughout the whole film.
The supporting cast is also perfectly fine but is also only
given the bare minimum of development time to establish them and nothing
else. They are only in a few scenes in
the real world with most of their performance being voice driven for animated
characters. With Aech, the performance
from Lena Waithe is at least funny in the right spots and provides a good
companion role for the lead as well as the Asian Gunters of Daito and Shoto
mainly in how they portray their characters despite being just there for the
cool moments of the action sequences.
Then you have actors that serve as bit players like Simon Pegg as Ogden Murrow
while Mark Rylance provides the emotional element of the story even if it’s not
at the forefront of the main plot. The
reason for the crunched in section for the actors/characters is that they are
never truly given a chance to stand out among the CGI creations and the big
action spectacle that unfortunately drowns out the human components of the
story and performances.
Let’s get to the technical aspects of the film starting with
the action set pieces themselves that are both CGI driven and practical to an
extent. For the action set pieces in the
Oasis, they are thrilling and intense to watch especially the explosive and
chaotic opening race for the first key.
It has its moments of inventive references and eye candy to the extreme,
but it is a bit of a disjointed mess overall and not the best way to really
open the film. The second act has the
best action beats from the Disco dancing date straight from the book to the
surprisingly clever and wonderful recreation of a film that has a personal
connection to the director that provides the excitement, mystery, callbacks,
and referential adventuring that was the book’s strongest writing quality
brought to life on the big screen.
However, it eventually becomes a blinding, overloading mess with its
final act as it combines action beats from The Oasis and real world with
nostalgic callback/reference overload in full gear for better and worse to the
entertainment factor. Simply put, the
Oasis is fun to watch at least but the real-world elements are meandering and
very sluggish to watch.
The next aspect to explore is the cinematography of the
film, which will be tricky as it combines the old and new methods of visual
storytelling with uses of studios, green/blue screens, and CGI animated
worlds. The film was shot by Janusz
Kamiński (his go-to cinematographer on numerous films since 1991) and it tends
to combine the signature looks of Spielberg’s films with fully formed CGI
worlds. It is an odd combinations of visual
film styles as it adheres closer to the way James Cameron’s adventure film Avatar
was made by blending animated film with live action for the other half of its
film. Other than that distinction, the
film is mainly animated and is more interesting and fun to be in than the real
world which was intentional. It looks
visually stunning at times and each frame is filled with something video game,
movie, tv, or anime related references along with the colorful palettes of the
custom created avatars. This leads to
the one aspect of the film that has everyone talking and curious as to how it
factors into the story meaningfully or just there for the sake of it.
The references and callbacks to each decade of pop culture
is all over this film from the obvious connections of Back To The Future with the Delorean and items related to that film
but also creations such as Battletoads,
“The A Team”, “The Batman and Robin Series”, Akira, Stephen King’s
Christine, Robocop, Hello Kitty,
“Mobile Suit Gundam”, “Firefly”, Spaceballs,
the Bespin Cloud Fighter from The Empire
Strikes Back, The Iron Giant,
Street Fighter, and many more. The film
is galore with blink and you’ll miss shout outs to these iconic or obscure
references. There are both meaningfully
implemented in the film but also can be pandering by the very end especially
with the big battle that feels a bit like the nickname it has been given to the
film called “Reference: The Movie”. It
is very much a mixed execution on how they are utilized to created and
establish the way the world works for the story or the atmosphere surrounding
it.
This leads to editing itself as the film must devote time to
both the animated and real world equally.
It does create a sense of dissonance with how the story flows in both
worlds as there are a ton of inter-cutting between the two. It seems fast and energetic at one point but
it slows down and feels ponderous as if to take a breath before the next set piece
or plot movement. While that editing choice
is intentional, it does mean that the film tends to feel rushed for most of it
as it seems driven more by action than developing the world or characters. It just needed another pass or even some
scenes that develop the characters to help make the viewers care about their
adventure and goals against the villains.
Which brings us to Sound Design and Scoring for the film as
our last technical aspect to explore before it’s time to quit this game for final
thoughts. The sound design is a
mish-mash of different effects and sounds from numerous films/media that are
associated with the references ala Pulse Rifle from Aliens or even notable music
cues related to films especially with the composer Alan Silvestri and his
previous, iconic theme for Back To The Future. It is another source of Easter egg references
that is less obvious but lovingly rewarding to spot them. This leads to the original score from Silvestri,
who remixes his own work to create score that works in moments and drives the
action on the big screen with a ton of notable melodies and cues from his previous
work upon hearing it. The sound design is
wonderfully handled and is yet another part of the film that is handled with
exceptional care even if the script/characters/story didn’t receive the same
treatment.
It can be challenging to go into a blockbuster style film expecting
for it to be more than the sum of its parts but Ready Player One comes very close to being as remarkable as Spielberg’s
classics or even flawed but memorable films and this one, kind of falls more
along the lines of close mindless popcorn fun but ultimately forgettable. Where the film truly shines is in its technical
qualities of visual effects and sound design along with some visually fun and
exciting action sequences in the Oasis as well as a stellar 2nd act surprise
that comes the closet to capturing the nostalgic zany fun of the book. However, its shallow, flat characters, shaky
opening act along with a bloated and overlong finale, failing to juggle its
message with spectacle for mixed results, and tethering on pandering at times
in regards to its references in relations to its thin, basic storyline makes
for a film that is a ton of fun on the surface and tasty as delicious candy but
is hollow and ultimately fades away before you can appreciate how good it
really was to have it.
Score *** out of *****
Ready Player One
is Steven Spielberg’s seminal blockbuster film release of this year and it comes
close to re-invoking the magic and sentimental fun that was always easy to find
in his films. The film shows that confidently
in its visual splendor of the Oasis along with the numerous references and callbacks
to decades of media from the 80’s to today.
It captures the spirit and adventurous joy of the book in its second act
starting with the Disco Date to the finale.
This coupled with expertly crafted visual effects with a remarkably familiar
sound design makes for a euphoric visual/audio experience for the right viewers. However, in shaping the spectacle in front of
our eyes, they forgot to develop their flat and uninteresting character archetypes
to standout in this film along with the thin, generic good vs. evil plot that hints
at some bigger theme and message about the dangers of VR and nostalgia, only to
leave it on the wayside for more action and “look at that!” moments. This means the film lacks the depth and
nuance that makes a film go from being just good but forgettable to great and
memorable. This is a fun ride for sure
but it’s one that might not stick with you once those glasses come off and you’re
heading right back out into the real world.
