The following review contains mild spoilers.
Now, I know what you're thinking: this movie came out two months ago, why review it now? Well, even though the movie has been released in theaters for a while, I have only just seen it. Might as well review it. Ready Player One is directed by legendary director Steven Spielberg, and based on the book of the same name. I have never read the book, but I was willing to watch it because Spielberg is one of my favorite directors of all time. He's the man behind some of my favorite movies ever, such as Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I will admit, though, the trailers did not look particularly great. At first glance, it looked like a movie whose sole purpose is to make the viewer go "hey look, it's that character from that franchise." On that front, I don't think the movie was as bad with the franchise product placement than I thought it would be. However, I thought the film itself was just okay, and it never lived up to the full potential that it promised.
Ready Player One follows Wade, a teenage boy living in a future where the entire world is taken over by virtual reality. In the fictional world of the Oasis, the people of the world take up characters where they can be whoever they want and do whatever they want. When there's a contest to win control of the Oasis, Wade, as well as the rest of the players of the game, want to win. But when an evil corporation wants to win the championship for their own personal gain, lives are on the line as the race to win the game commences.
Does this story sound familiar to you? It should, because it is. Ready Player One is a rather derivative story, and it uses multiple cliches that have become tired at this point. For example, we have the awkward nerd protagonist, the independent and determined love interest, the evil corporation, the rebel alliance, the dystopian society, the ancient artifact that can alter the universe depending on whoever obtains it, and more. Everything about the story has been done before in much better and more interesting ways. The fact that the story is highly predictable doesn't help. The story has few twists and turns that are at all surprising. I was able to predict almost everything that the movie would do before it happened. It's a shame, because I like it when I don't know what's coming in a movie.
I found the characters to be rather generic as well. Every character in the movie feels like a character that I've seen in countless other films in this genre. There's nothing particularly unique about them that makes them stand out. Each character has cliche personality traits, making them uninteresting and difficult to latch onto.
The acting was also pretty weak. There were some standouts, like Mark Rylance playing the awkward and reserved game developer, Olivia Cooke playing the female lead, and Simon Pegg playing the assistant game developer and curator of the theater, even if his appearance is brief. All the other performers ranged from okay to bad. Tye Sheridan did a fine job as the lead, but he didn't do anything to stand out. His character could have been played by anyone else and nothing would be changed. In fact, in some areas, a different actor could have been better because Sheridan's performance really began to suffer during the more serious scenes. T.J. Miller was fine as the comedic relief bounty hunter, but his character was entirely pointless to the story. He could have been completely taken out of the movie and not much would change. There were other performances that I was not a fan of, like, almost all the rest of them, but I'm not interested in going into each of their acting, because let's face it, it's not worth it. Just know that I found the acting all around to be pretty underwhelming.
The biggest problem with Ready Player One is how little sense the movie makes. If you start thinking about the plot and how the worlds are built, it is easy to finding holes in the story. There were multiple things that this movie did that I found downright dumb. Here are just a few examples: How do people actually play the game? Some people are playing it while sitting down while others are running through their own world and interacting with the Oasis through their own physical activity. How does the Oasis coincide with the real world? Are all the structures in the Oasis the same as they are in the real world? When someone is playing the game, do they run into things even though there might be nothing right in front of them? As for the people that played the game sitting down, do they play the game with controllers? Are they able to do everything the same as those who run around in the world? What about the people that have the multi-moving treadmill? Do they have the same capabilities as those running around in the real world? How are they able to control how they jump while on the treadmill?There are a lot more nonsensical elements to the story that I can list at the moment. If you want a full rundown on how little sense the movie makes, I recommend watching yourmoviesucks.org's review of Ready Player One. He states most of the points that I thought during the movie, as well as some extra points that I did not pick up on.
What ends up saving this movie are the visuals. The movie looks absolutely gorgeous. The way the environments are designed, matched with the CGI and the brilliant use of color, give the movie an amazing spectacle. The cinematography and special effects are both great and help bring both worlds to life. I could easily see this universe being a videogame world.
I also found the action scenes to be a lot of fun. Even though there is an abundance of CGI, the action is executed in a thrilling and visually stipulating way. There's a lot happening on screen, but Spielberg always does a great job of focusing on the central action even if there is a lot of chaos surrounding it. Plus, the scenes have a lot of creative ideas to them. The way that technology is used in both the real world and within the game are cool. The way that pop culture references are brought together is fun to watch and refreshing that they're not obnoxiously shoved down your throat. There is a scene that involves the main characters going into and interacting with The Shining, and that sequence was easily the best part of the movie. The way that the characters were brought into the movie and how the scenes of the film within the film came to life as an obstacle for the heroes looked great and was a blast to watch.
And that's the thing: this movie was made to be a blast to watch. It's not focused on telling an in-depth story. All it wants is to be entertaining. Does it succeed? Kind of, but not really. There are a lot of creative ideas and some sequences are a lot of fun, but I found the story to be too dumb to get invested. I realize that this is a "shut your brain off" film, and in that aspect, it works. However, shouldn't you be able to think about what your watching? When I watch a movie, I want to think about the story, the characters, the technical aspects, and how much of an impact the movie left on me. With the exception of the technical side, Ready Player One didn't give me that. If you're looking for some light popcorn fun, then you'll most likely enjoy it. If you've already seen it and you love it, I'm glad you did and I completely understand why. For me, I just found it too aggravating and stupid to be fully enjoyable.
Final score: 5/10 (Average)
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