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Steven Spielberg is always consistent in his directorial choices, that is for sure, and I know I have talked about him many times in my reviews, but for good reason. He simply delivers what he sets out to make and usually to the pleasure of most cinema-goers. He always sets his sights on breakthroughs in cinema -- to deliver something new, something eye-opening -- and here with "Ready Player One" he has, yet again, fulfilled that promise.
It is certainly harder to really impress viewers these days, with children and young adults being so in tune with technology through constantly evolving pop culture changes and references, so Spielberg's task here was going to be a tough one.
The original book by Ernest Cline, a New York Times best seller and critically acclaimed novel, was almost immediately snapped up by Warner Bros. to be made into a movie. Together with the interest of Spielberg, the movie was set in motion. But Spielberg has stated it was one of the hardest movies he has made, mostly because it took several years to align all the copyright issues involved with cross-referencing other movies, even his own… but more about that later.
Here then is my review of "Ready Player One," and a discussion about its relevance in today's social media-driven world.
It is 2045 and most cities have been turned into slums where people have become more and more reliant on spending most of their time in a virtual universe called Oasis. In Columbus, Ohio, we are introduced to Wade Watts, played by Tye Sheridan, a 17-year-old orphan who has become an expert gamer, known as Parzival, a "Gunter," as they are known, short for Egg Hunter.
Together with his online friend Aech, played by Lena Waithe, Parzival tries and fails to win in a notorious car race to get the first of three keys that will lead to the eventual winner obtaining the entire Oasis company and all its assets.
There he meets Art3mis, another famous Gunter, played by Olivia Cooke, on whom he has had a crush for a long time. Together they begin to find clues and try to win the keys.
Whilst looking through video archives of James Halliday, the creator and founder of Oasis, played by the excellent Mark Rylance, they begin to unravel mysteries that will hopefully lead them to victory. Trying to stop them so he can stay in control of the business himself is Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn, the current CEO of Oasis, as he sets about trying to destroy them.
Well, from here on we are treated to a roller-coaster ride of a movie with one nostalgic set piece after another unveiled as the heroes pursue those elusive keys.
Will they succeed?
Will Sorrento be able to stop them?
Will they ever get to the truth about Halliday and his original reasons for creating the Easter egg hunt in the first place?
Yes, you will need to see it to find out of course, and I promise that the journey will be fun and exciting -- Spielberg-style!
The Gunters are looking for a hidden, digital egg; additionally, an intentional inside joke or image in a movie is called an "Easter egg," and Reader Player One is full of them.
There are some incredible technical innovations in this movie, for sure, not least of which is the way in which all the movie references are brought to life spectacularly, and enough nostalgia to keep any fan of '80s movies happy. For me, the sequence involving the main characters being sent into the middle of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980) was jaw -dropping.
I won't give anything away -- of course, you'll just have to watch it to see -- but the cross-over into the original movie scenes in the Overlook Hotel was quite brilliantly done through an intricately conceived mix of original footage and new CGI enhancements; stunning.
There are, supposedly, more than 100 references to movies that span the '80s and '90s many of which, despite it being a Steven Spielberg film, were very hard to gain the copyright license required for them to be used.
Indeed, Spielberg himself tried and failed to get licensing permission to use references from his own movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977). That's how serious the copyright laws are today.
As crazy at it may seem, the amount of money and potential royalty payments that are involved make this kind of movie a veritable mine-field of legal maneuvering, but achieved it was, and interestingly enough, this added more to the budget and the need for an even greater box office return. Warner Bros. needn't have worried, though, because to date, the movie has grossed more than $580 million worldwide and guaranteed its profit, with even more profit to come from DVD and Blu-ray sales and future cable and TV releases.
Timing is another forte of Spielberg's, knowing just when the right time to release a movie should be, and with "Ready Player One," he has shown that foresight in very particular way.
My two teenage sons (one is soon to be a teenager) immediately caught on to the plot and understood it, more than I did at first. They could relate to its social impact and relevance, being game players themselves, and the universal message was unmistakable: be careful of where one's love of virtual reality may lead!
Luckily, though, they also understood that the dystopian future depicted here was not a "for-sure," as they both told me, which I have to say made me feel a little better about the future.
Some other themes the movie tries to get to grips with, the idea of fractured families and personal social detachment issues, tended to get a little lost, or should I say discarded, in favor of the overall entertainment value. Although it is a very exciting piece of entertainment, I did find myself wanting to know more about the real players outside of their avatars. Unfortunately I was only allowed a glimpse.
The movie was in the best possible hands, of course, as Spielberg has once again, shown his sheer mastery of "mise en scene" (the arrangement of everything you see on screen) with all his flare for visual timing and pacing going into a very exciting and entertaining two hours and 20 minutes. But I feel there could be more, especially with the development of the main players. Perhaps he decided that, on this occasion, it was for the best overall.
There is a sequel being written, and Ernest Cline is going to be even more involved with a future movie project, but at this point, Warner Bros. have not committed to a second movie and it is not clear if Spielberg himself is even going to be involved.
Profits were good, but I have to say, not as good as the studio had expected. We shall see as time goes on, but I hope that, if a sequel is made, we can get to know more about the characters first and then dive back into the visual splendor and hopefully, have Mr. Spielberg firmly back at the helm.
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"Ready Player One" (PG-13), a Warner Bros. release, is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.