Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Riaan V — 18 Jul 2018

Uhhh, wow. Where do I start? Well for starters, there are a lot of cameos, easter eggs, and references than I can possibly count. I saw a lot of things and heard a lot of things than I can even humanly process. However, one thing for sure is that I actually enjoyed this film very much. I didn't expect anything out of a movie that I'm fully aware Steven Spielberg directed it. Of course there would be movie stuff he worked on before but it was pretty cool. I don't know how this movie gave a smooth pass on able to have a lot of characters and other things that are well known to a lot of people but it happened. This movie happened. A lot of awesome nods from the top of my head like the Mecha Godzilla, Iron Giant, The RX-78-2 mobile suit Gundam, Goro from Mortal Kombat, the original Lara Croft, Tracer from Overwatch, Chun Li and Ryu from Street Fighter, Master Chief from Halo, Jim Raynor from Starcraft, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Jason, and just a lot of frickin notable characters and other things like the weapons. The retro video games. Man it was just an extreme trip down nostalgia lane.

But while all of that was happening, I think the story was pretty good. A lot of people who are so obsessed on this VR game called The Oasis and not spending quality time in the real world. Because we're all want to be someone else and spend more time in a world where we can do anything. While such luxury is a good thing, this movie gives a nice reminder that even if reality sucks, the best thing about it is that it's real. But that was not the one that really hit me in the feels. What really hit me real good was a huge reminder about playing video games. It's never about winning but actually about how fun it is playing a video game. Especially when you find something real nice that not many know about. Which the movie's biggest theme is easter egg. Hidden stuff. Bonus levels. A small thing that it's not a big deal but it is to a lot of people. Something so little that it is neat to accomplish. Like skipping all the worlds in Super Mario 3 and finshing the game in about 11 minutes. Entering bonus stages in Sonic the Hedgehog, funny things you can that aren't related to the video game, hidden levels that you can access easily or even daunting tasks you have to do in order to see something secret. Even the well known Konami code. Those kind of things I actually hold dearly because that's how video games were. Just simply fun. Adding little things into the game take more it even more fun. I think that's what's missing nowadays in today's video games. While most of them have the best looking graphics or the greatest story ever told, you can't beat something that makes you still feel like everything is all right in life, you know? It doesn't have to be video games, it can be anything.

Ready Player One is quirky yet full of nostalgic stuff. But at the same time, it's a pretty good adventure to watch. I wouldn't mind watching it a few times more. While there were a couple of "wut", it can be dismissive with no big deal.

I like to point out a real quick little something that happened in the movie. The RX-78-2 Gundam versus Mecha Godzilla. Now it's all pure CGI but it's the best damn closest thing I'm gonna get to a live action fight and it was a real good one. It didn't last very well and I thought Artemis finishing the battle was somehow a let-down, I would have loved it so much if the Gundam finished the battle right off. Still, I think it was my most favorite scene in the movie since I'm a fan of the Gundam series.