Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Captiosus — 31 Mar 2018

Putting aside my book bias and evaluating the movie on its own merits, it's simply mediocre and forgettable. The world building is limited to the first 5 minutes of the film where Wade (aka Parzival) narrates an introduction to the viewers. It doesn't adequately explain WHY the real world has become so lousy that everyone wants to escape to the OASIS, merely that the OASIS has become the preferred escapism drug of the masses. No attempt is made to tie in the constant 80's references, leaving the viewer to wonder why kids in 2045 would give a damn about John Hughes or Twisted Sister. All we're really told is that the real world sucks, everyone loves the OASIS, and that if the Big Bad™ IOI and Sorrento win the late James Halladay's easter egg hunt the OASIS will become as lousy as the real world. So players like Wade and his best friend Aech are on a quest to win the hunt and save the OASIS from IOI's corporate oppression.

Literally a few minutes later, we're introduced to Art3mis and the movie shifts entirely in tone. Art3mis is originally presented to the audience as a strong character who is apparently well known within the OASIS as one of the top Egg Hunters -- Gunters, in the parlance of the movie and book -- and Parzival is immediately smitten with her despite only seeing her avatar on Kaira's bike from AKIRA. At this point the movie becomes a cliche teen love, "get the girl" movie. Parzival still cares about the OASIS but only in the context of his relationship with Art3mis.

In the real world, Art3mis (aka Samantha Cook) is portrayed as a member of some rebellion group who has at least one shadow operative working behind the scenes. Yet barely an hour after being introduced to Art3mis as a strong character with an axe to grind against IOI (and 10 minutes after meeting her in the real), Art3mis' character is turned into a shrinking violet who defers to Parzival and even sacrifices herself to the very thing that she was fighting against in order to save Wade in the real. This, of course, sets up the final conflict which becomes more about saving Art3mis than saving the OASIS. Parzival trashing IOI and bringing down Sorrento is a bonus but the real reason he feels he has to win the Easter Egg hunt is to rescue his love interest from the clutches of IOI.

The other three members of the high five - Aech (Parzival's best friend ever), Daito, and Sho - are all given short shrift. They are paper thin characters both in the OASIS and in the real. Aech is the most prominent but Aech's role devolves into mid-movie comic relief and late movie chauffeur. Daito and Sho are practically afterthoughts.

The movie bombards the viewer with CGI special effects and nostalgia bombs. It's worth noting, however, that a good 90 percent of the nostalgia and in-movie pop culture references were in the trailers. If you've seen the reveal trailer, the second trailer, and the final trailer you've seen almost all of the references. There's only three sections not shown in the trailers with a handful of references. The high point of the nostalgia trip is the second key challenge within a recreation of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". As an aside, I couldn't help but wonder why, in this universe, video gaming development died circa 2017 -- where everyone is still playing Overwatch, Borderlands, Halo, and DOOM 30+ years later. It's as if the OASIS came out and game developers just gave up. Since the movie doesn't take the time to really explain WHY these old franchises and 80's nostalgia are so prevalent, it feels shoehorned in and makes very little sense.

Nostalgia alone is why this movie is getting high ratings by viewers. Take off the nostalgia goggles and evaluate the movie for the story it tells and how it tells it. It wants to be a nostalgia driven, young adult dystopia movie like Hunger Games or Maze Runner but lacks the story chops to pull it off and relies on CGI as glue to hold together the weak narrative. Bear in mind that this is just a view of the movie on its own merits. If I really wanted to do a deep dive comparing it to the book, well, that would take far too long. Suffice to say, if you liked the book and are expecting the book, you'll be disappointed. Especially if you're a fan of Ogden Morrow's character from the book.