Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Thequietgamer — 03 Aug 2018

Not a love letter to the '80s or a celebration of all things pop culture. Nor is it another escapism classic from Steven Spielberg. Basically none of the things we were all told it was going to be. Instead, Ready Player One is a gaudy CGI-fest with nonexistent characters. The perfect example of what is wrong with so much of modern cinema. It's not devoid of joy though. Spielberg still manages to put on a decent show no matter how overblown.

The movie is filled with Easter eggs. Good luck seeing any of them though. Even the most eagle-eyed of viewers will have a hard time picking out all of the references and cameos amongst the constant movement and visual clutter. I can only think of about three properties that were handled with any sort of love anyways (Chucky, The Shining, and Back to the Future in case you were wondering). The rest of the inclusions feel shallow and devoid of affection.

There's so much happening onscreen that it often devolves into visual noise. The movie is at it's best when it slows down and focuses on the story. I really dug the core premise of players trying to complete secret challenges to win a once and a lifetime prize. There are some really cool sequences that result from this. The battle against the evil corporation is nowhere near as interesting though thanks to some truly terrible characterization. We spend so much time looking at CGI avatars that I often found myself forgetting there were real people just on the other side. Even when we do get to look at some human faces the material they are given is so weak that the actors aren't able to have any kind of impact or presence. They have the makings of backstories, but these only ever come up once and very briefly at that. So things like the main character's loss of parents and occasional abuse from whatever loser his aunt is dating at the time do nothing to make us sympathize with and root for him. It's too shallow and cliché anyways. The rest of the cast fares much worse.

Whatever message the story is trying to get across ends up lost in translation. If this is really supposed to be about valuing real life then shouldn't more of the movie taken place there rather than almost entirely inside the game? I liked how Spielberg used the game's creator to sort of parallel himself and express how all creators will have a piece of themselves living on inside of their creations, but admittedly not much is happening there either. Ready Player One is much better as a critique of the current state of the video game industry with it's subtle jabs at things like microtransactions and IAPs.

I know it must sound like I hate this given all of the negative stuff I've had to say up to this point, but let me assure you that I don't. There are most certainly elements that I enjoyed. Such as the Overlook Hotel sequence which is both genuinely thrilling and a wonderful homage to one of the most celebrated horror films of all time. It's also a technical marvel. T.J. Miller, who I usually can't stand outside of Silicon Valley, is quite amusing here. Although his character contributes nothing to the overall story. I loved seeing that Master of None's Lena Waithe got a role in the film. Hopefully this will serve as a launching point for her into bigger and better things.

Make no mistake, Ready Player One is highly flawed, lacking in the narrative chops that will allow viewers to engage with anything other than the gargantuan visuals, and I'm likely never going to watch it again. The Willy Wonka with a VR-gaming angle type plot keeps things entertaining even at it's most excessive, but the depth we normally get from Spielberg films just isn't there.