READY PLAYER ONE (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ready player one (2018) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   140 minutes

Released         |   29 March 2018

cast

Tye Sheridan ... Wade Watts
Olivia Cooke ... Samantha Cook
Hannah John-Kamen ... F'Nale
Ben Mendelsohn ... Nolan Sorrento
​T.J. Miller ... i-R0k
Simon Pegg ... Ogden Morrow
​Mark Rylance ... James Halliday

director

Steven Spielberg

writer

​Zak Penn ... (screenplay by) and
Ernest Cline ... (screenplay)
 
Ernest Cline ... (based on the novel by)

cinematographer

​Janusz Kaminski

music

​Alan Silvestri

film editor

Michael Kahn

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

Parzival: People come to the Oasis for all the things they can do, but they stay for all the things they can be.

Sixer #1: [In amazement at being attacked] It's fucking Chucky!

Sho: Ninjas don't hug!

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READY PLAYER ONE (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

​The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse.  But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance).  When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world.  When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 29 March 2018
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

Steven Spielberg has made the distinction in pre-release media that READY PLAYER ONE is a “Movie”; not a “Film”. Upon viewing the “Movie”, it’s easy to see why modern cinema’s most influential figure has been at pains to draw the distinction.

Once upon a time, Spielberg was cinema’s “Go To” guy for Popcorn movie fare. From the mid 1970s until JURASSIC PARK in 1993, he delivered a body of work that thrilled Studio Accountants as much as audiences. For so long, Box Office was his currency. Then, something happened. He finally received peer recognition for SCHINDLER’S LIST; an Academy Award for Best Film. Steven the Wunderkind became Steven the Serious. His focus changed. He moved away from Adventure, Fantasy and Science Fiction. His movies tackled more serious subject matter. Every so often, he waded back into the genres that were the staple of his early career, but it has been a case of diminishing returns. The early 2000s weren’t bad. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. MINORITY REPORT. WAR OF THE WORLDS. The last ten years have been pretty barren. THE BFG was not a career high, nor was THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. Unfortunately, neither is READY PLAYER ONE.

There is a fundamental disconnect between the live action elements of the “Film” and the computer animated sequences of the “Movie”. This is, perhaps, why Spielberg has been at pains to categorise READY PLAYER ONE in the manner he has.

Unusually, it is the computer animated sequences that stand out, leaving the live-action sequences looking underwhelming by comparison.

​Based on the novel by Ernest Cline, READY PLAYER ONE is an ode to 1980s popular culture. Mark Rylance is James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, a virtual-reality environment that allows people to disappear into the digital realm to escape the myriad problems that population overcrowding have created in the real world. Halliday decides to do a post-mortem Willy Wonka, challenging all comers to find three keys to unlock the secret of the OASIS and claim its riches. As well-intentioned as Halliday is, the prize attracts all kinds, including IOI, the world’s largest digital company, under the control of corporate weasel Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn. Sorrento is a former employee of Halliday’s but was shunned by the OASIS creator because of his constant badgering to try convince its creator to exploit his creation for maximum commercial gain.

​It’s left to READY PLAYER ONE’s version of Charlie Bucket, Wade Watts, played by Tye Sheridan, to get the ball rolling, decoding the clues to unlock the secret to successfully securing the first key in Halliday’s challenge. The big problem with READY PLAYER ONE is that Wade Watts, as played by Sheridan, is not that interesting in the real world. Its his digital avatar, Parzival, that possesses all the spunk and the wherewithal to do what is necessary to go forward and change his existence.

At one point in the story, Wade’s partner in adventure, Olivia Cooke’s Art3mis, tells him that she’s not nearly as interesting in the real world… This really does sum up the disconnect between the live-action and the digital sequences of READY PLAYER ONE. So much thought has gone into realizing the computer animated elements of Cline’s story that Zak Penn’s script struggles to make the real-world action nearly half as exciting. Much of the “Movie’s” real world action during its finale is Tye Sheridan suspended to the inside roof of a van, bouncing off the walls, supposedly under attack from IOI operatives who have been sent to stop him from unlocking the final key in the game world. From a director of Steven Spielberg’s calibre and experience, the action is poorly staged and completely unconvincing. Perhaps its worst crime is that it feels cheap. For a film that cost $175 million to produce, there’s no excuse for anything to look cheap!

Some parts of READY PLAYER ONE are outstanding, but they’re driven by the ability of visual effects artists to render that which was unable to be rendered when it was “new”. The “Movie’s” 1980s cinematic reference points highlight READY PLAYER ONE at its very best, but also demonstrate the challenge Spielberg has in retrofitting much loved memories to the movie...

The character’s adventures in the OASIS are beautifully realized. Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING is featured in critical sequence through the mid-section of the film, in keeping with READY PLAYER ONE’s love of 1980s popular culture, and, if nothing else, is a testament to how much Spielberg admires the legendary film-maker. The story thrusts the Wade’s Parzival avatar, along with Art3mis and their two friends, headlong into The Overlook Hotel, the primary setting of Kubrick’s 1980s “Frightmare” thriller than took Stephen King’s hugely popular novel and turned it into a self-proclaimed “Masterpiece of Modern Horror”. The character’s become first-person participants in all the key scenes from Kubrick’s film, encountering the bizarre going-ons that haunted Jack Nicholson’s leering Jack Torrance and his family. It’s a beautifully conceived sequence, but it’s not indicative of READY PLAYER ONE’s overly-long 140 minute running time. The daring of the sequence leaves the viewer wanting more, but it doesn’t eventuate.

Instead, READY PLAYER ONE is overwhelmed by the need to cram as much as it possible can onto the screen to prove its love for Pop Culture.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of 1980s popular culture “Easter Eggs” scattered throughout the film. Viewers don’t have to look or listen too hard to uncover them, however, there are two absolute beauties for those paying close attention. One is from the John Boorman 1981 Arthurian Legend film EXCALIBUR, while the other is a great tribute to Leonard Nimoy’s Spock from the 1982 Nicholas Meyer film, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. It’s these types of references that will keep keen-eyed pop culture aficionados glued to the screen, but it’s not enough to sustain the “Movie”.

Fortunately, Spielberg avoids becoming too self-referential throughout proceedings, but some of the Director’s oeuvre ends up on screen with the likes of the T-Rex from JURASSIC PARK and the time-travelling DeLorean from the Spielberg-produced BACK TO THE FUTURE series taking pride of place in the OASIS. The film’s reliance on Old School gaming formats as a critical part of the Final Act is something of a momentum killer, as characters are forced into expository dialogue to help explain what is going on and why it’s important. The references are almost too oblique for the majority of 21st Century movie-goers to understand or care about.  

READY PLAYER ONE has a lot going on and it’s a very uneven undertaking. There are sequences of tremendous invention, but there are scenes that are as equally silly and second-rate. The good outweighs the bad, but, if fans of Spielberg’s early career were hoping for the Director to recapture his own legend in the pantheon of 1980s Pop Culture, they will be let down by READY PLAYER ONE. Perhaps the failing of READY PLAYER ONE, compared to the material from which it draws its inspiration, can be summed up by Aldous Huxley, a man who had a thought or two about humans and their environmental interactions…

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means of going backwards.”

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) USEFUL LINKS

​Ready Player One (2018) - IMDb
​Ready Player One (film) - Wikipedia
​Ready Player One (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes

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