Review of Ready Player One (2018) by Jasper L — 06 Apr 2018

Solid adaptation of the modern pop culture that mostly delivers on the book and doesn't quite capture it's magic. The cast is solid across the board, with Tye Sheridan & Olivia Cooke appealing in their roles as Wade Watts & Artemis.

The scene-stealer, though, is the great Mark Rylance as Halliday, the OASIS's creator, who manages to be both charming while completely nerdy at the same time. Behind the camera, Spielberg does a solid job adapting the book to film, with some changes that actually work.

The challenges are changed to be more visually appealing for movie goers, particularly the second one, which adds a nice bit of the horror genre to the mix (something the book missed). I-R0K (nicely played by T.

J. Miller), is smartly redone as well. However, the condensed timeline doesn't work too well, as some character development is sped up to much, where others are under used (like Simon Pegg's Ogden Marrow).

Plus, the corporate villains are so generic they are almost cartoonish (their plan for the OASIS is laugh out loud stupid), despite Ben Mendelson delivering another nice villain. The biggest problem is Spielberg, who while he was one of the creators of the brilliant geek culture the film celebrates, he doesn't quite understand it (similar to how his friend, George Lucas, showed he no longer understood his own creation, "Star War", with the prequels).

It's obvious he doesn't understand gamer culture in particular, and ultimately feels miscast as the director. He still delivers a fun story and the final battle is a pure geek out, but not quite the classic the books is.

Nevertheless, if are you are fan, still worth seeing in theaters.