Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Louis S — 13 Apr 2018

Ready Player One, based off the novel, is a pop culture story for the sci-fi and action nerds among us. The huge amount of content necessitates the aid of CGI to display the virtual world of the OASIS, where protagonist Wade Watts embarks on an adventure any lightweight video gamer would find familiar. The added possibility of a society ruled by a digital space offers some accessibility for the ignorant watcher where one may dismiss otherwise as a total geek-fest.

Right from the beginning the film is in full gear. Tons of narration to bring the viewer up to speed of RPO's world is dumped on the audience, and if you stop paying attention at any point here, you will certainly lose explanation to jargon the movie will start to throw at you (i.e. gunter, IOI, High Five, etc.). Additionally, like any story, there are limitations/boundaries to the world, but the movie does not fully explain everything involved, leaving you to make assumptions. Ready Player One maintains a feverish pace through the plot, anxious to cover critical points with its 2.5hr runtime. If I did not know the full scope of the story via the book, I would have felt pretty isolated from what was happening on the screen.

But reading the book gives no major advantage to the movie, as about 90% of the plot bore little-to-no similarity to the novel. Clearly the vision of utilizing such a wealth of pop culture references in a viewable format took priority over the structure already given around it. Events reminiscent of their written foundations are rearranged or just plain made up to fit a blockbuster-geared experience. But the greater tragedy of disassembling what was already well-constructed is the loss of the deeper social and cultural statements the book touched on. There's no dialogue on the physical decay of people entranced in a virtual lie, because none of the characters are overweight, unattractive, or socially inept. There's no dialogue about the desperation of people on a dying planet, because every small scene showing the outside world bears no major impact on the main characters, and even when there is real-world death, it is distant and impersonal. This is clearly a Hollywood movie with a big-name director, with enough safety measures in place to never feel real conflict.

In the end, Ready Player One is a wasted opportunity-- some may find it a fun watch, but even its core novelty is not strong enough to be more interesting compared to other action movies coming down the pike. Furthermore, RPO alienates those who already know the story while at the same time discourages new engagement due to how the movie operates. When the book itself could have easily been stretched into further sequels, a movie trying to relay everything was already doomed from the start.