Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Joshua S — 25 Apr 2018

Having perhaps the worst trailers for an upcoming release this year, other than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ready Player One surprised the movie going public by not being complete and utter garbage. How 'bout that! The Ernest Cline novel that the film is loosely based on, was harshly criticized by the nerd internet press upon its release several years ago, for its overreliance on 80's nostalgia, Gen X fanboy pandering, and sloppy narrative cohesion. Spielberg wisely avoids this trap and opts for a more general audience friendly feature, eschewing the more esoteric and silly pop culture nonsense. If you were expecting Spielberg to offer a deconstruction of the kind of films he used to make, (that ironically helped build this subculture) then you are plainly out of luck. Ready Player One may make for a partly successful popcorn flick, but complexity and deconstruction are not on its mind. Yes, the plot is mostly about youngsters living in a dystopian VR world, chasing around a series of MacGuffins in order to stop an evil corporation that is essentially EA 20 years from now. But it moves at a brisk pace and has enough jokes, references to things YOU like, and interesting moments to carry it through. The Shining set piece is probably the show-stopper for many.

Ready Player One may be overstuffed with garish CGI, but this may be the one time it's appropriate, as an actual VR world with this much bullshit in it would be nothing but garish CGI. So no point loss there. Most of the performances are not noteworthy other than two veteran actors in supporting roles. Ben Mendelsohn may be becoming typecast as a slimy corporate villain, but he's actually an amazing character actor, which is probably why he's in goddamn everything these days. (He's come a long way from being a glorified extra in The New World.) And Mark Rylance (Spielberg's secret weapon as of late) shines in an amusing, but poignant role - here to tell the protagonist and the audience to get off their ass and enjoy the real world. And that's not a bad message to end on.