Ready Player One [2018]

[nefilim]

Plot : When the creator of an MMO 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. Wade Watts finds the first clue and starts a race for the Egg.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg

[nefilim]

Ben Mendelsohn is interesting actor. Glad he's getting a-list work lately.

[nefilim]

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

[Sheikah]

[nefilim]

...anotherNewTrailer

[nefilim]

AnotherTrailer

[nefilim]

[nefilim]

 

[nefilim]

FinalTrailer

[FN-2187]

Ready [INSERT REFERENCE]

 

Ready Player One was one of my most anticipated films of the year.  Ready Player One was a return to the action adventure genre by acclaimed Director Stephen Spielberg. Ready Player One was a film built as a love letter to all things that people like me- film critics- love. Ready Player One was a disappointment. 

 

Perhaps I placed too much of an expectation on the film to deliver in departments that I initially thought as reasonable and now see as arbitrary.  Ready Player One is a film that is exactly what I thought it would be- it is a lovingly crafted reference to nostalgia that feels both genuine and cynically calculated. There is an unfortunate and inherent irony that, while the core of the film represents the struggle between the idealist and the corporation- that the film is guised in the corporate synergy of every Warner Brothers Intellectual Property cram-able within 70mm of film.  Sure, there are cameo's by characters from Blizzard Entertainment, 343 Studios, and.... Blizzard Entertainment- however, the majority of every scene is comprised of Harlely Quinns, Arkham Knights (no, seriously), Mortal Kombat Characters, and- you guessed it- more DC characters. 

 

References aside, let's get to the core issues that I have with Ready Player One.

The characters are not convincing. While our protagonist has an almost insulting case of protagonist syndrome- the side characters fall in to categories that seem so stereotypically 1-dimensional that it's really difficult to engage or even understand anyone's motivation within the confines of the story. In a world where the dichotomy of identity could be explored in the idea of "Be who you want to be"- everything is as it appears to be; and while I shouldn't place an unreasonable expectation on a PG-13 action film to engage with the audience on the duality of self-identity- the alternative is that the film just ends up being an action movie with a flashy background. Characters seemingly reconvene in situations for no other apparent reason than the script requiring a certain amount of people to be there- characters are not included in certain scenes for no logical reason other than to make an undeserved entrance for dramatic effect- and rules within the world the film constructs that I guarantee you that you will laugh unintentionally during the final moments of the film*. Whether each of the characters in Ready Player One are themselves going through the motions of what an 80's film character would do- without proper context of who each of these characters are- it's hard for the dramatic aspects of the film to feel anything other than painfully forced, and the resulting level of how meta this comes across is mind-boggling.

 

In an almost brilliant irony that can only be described as an unintended, projected amount of substance- Ready Player One is what ever you want it to be. Sure, while the film uses it's knowledge of other properties as a crutch- it is a crutch that some may find comforting. The Oasis is given value by whatever investment an individual is willing to place on its escapism- and much like the patrons of the Oasis, the audience of Ready Player One will assign their own value to whatever imagery (regardless of how superficial it may be) they see on screen. Will you enjoy seeing a Gundam on screen? Will you enjoy seeing the Iron Giant punch things? These are questions that only you can answer for yourself- but as for me- the flashiness of all the things I could recognize was not enough to forgive the structural flaws I had with the film. 

 

On more positive notes- the film moves from set-piece to set piece competently enough and each set-piece is still a set-piece crafted by Steven Spielberg. 

 

In layman's terms- this film isn't Spielberg's next Jurassic Park- or even Spielberg's next Minority Report- Ready Player One is Spielberg's next War of the Worlds. And if you forgot that that film existed... well... then that's my point.

 

6.5/10

 

Spoiler

Alright so who else laughed when the Police showed up at the end of the film? The complete absence and disregard for any form of authority figure throughout the duration of the film had me believing that IOI and corporate security had entirely replaced conventional law-enforcement but- nope. Here they are, conveniently at the end of the film.