Director: Steven Spielberg
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 140 minutes
Ready Player One (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Ready Player One is one of Steven Spielberg’s latest endeavors and perhaps one of the only original ideas that popped out of Hollywood during the last few years. We knew we were in for a visual spectacle, but in terms of story it seems things weren’t all that impressive. That being said, we were quite eager to dive into this experience, which might actually show us some glimpses of the future. This player one was ready in his seat, even though enjoying an experience with a second player is always better.
In 2045 our world has become rather bleak, where real life proves to be dull, unrewarding and simply without any real purpose. The world has been turned into a culmination of ‘stacks’, which are slums where the container-like houses are stacked upon one another. In one of these cities you’ll find Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who goes by the name of Parzival in the Oasis, which is a giant online world in which you can do whatever you want, and if you work hard enough for it, become who you want to be. It seems that avatars have no restrictions, and there are no actual boundaries to be found. Sadly, the creator of this world, Halliday (Mark Rylance), has passed away and stated that whoever finds three special keys within the Oasis will become the higher authority of this world, and will also inherit the stocks of the company behind the game, ensuring a life of wealth. Wade is one of those players that wants to find the three hidden keys, to make sure the world stays a nice place. Sadly, a major corporation by the name of Innovative Online Industries (IOI) wants to break the code as well, to turn this world into a playground for their corporate plans, namely ads, revenue, and everything that Oasis is currently free of.
Wade will have to work together with his friends in the digital world in order to progress through the challenges laid out by Halliday, while at the same time steering away from IOI’s many players. In the process he meets Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), who clearly has a history with IOI as she hates them as no other. Both parties will team up in order to try and save this digital world from succumbing to a power hungry tyrant.
We were somewhat disappointed with the flow of the movie, as some things progress tediously slow at times. The story is extremely predictable at times, and some scenes are extremely dragged out, slowing down the action-packed movie this could have been. Nonetheless, every scene is breathtaking and amazing eye candy. The biggest problem with the movie is the fact that it is filled with Easter eggs, while the movie revolves around an Easter egg in the Oasis. The latter is not the actual problem, but the fact that if you don’t get many of the eighties and nineties pop culture references, you will pretty much miss half the experience. While there are some more recent references to modern games and movies, this movie is actually a very adult orientated film in a teen cover, which makes it miss its mark many times over.
As far as acting performances go in a digital environment, the acting in Ready Player One was done in a believable and decent fashion. While the characters in a digital world have a bit more leeway when it comes to emotions, their real life counterparts did a decent job in conveying their feelings to the small screen for the release of this Blu-ray. We were not always amazed, but it was certainly a believable experience.
The special features of the Blu-ray version of Ready Player One are quite impressive, as they span over 90 minutes. You’ll be treated to lengthy sequences of how the movie was made, how the animations were handled, how everything came to fruition, the sound design and other featurettes. If you loved the movie, or simply want to learn more about the process behind this title, the extras will prove to be worth your while.
Conclusion
Ready Player One is a fun movie for people who are in love with games and understand a lot of pop culture references from the eighties and the nineties, as well as some more recent footage from games, as this movie is one big Easter egg waiting to pop. People just wanting to enjoy an adventure movie, or a visually pleasing experience, might be left wanting more as the plot itself is nothing to write home about, and these viewers will simply not get the full experience as the many references make or break this title.
Related Items
1 Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] you remember Ready Player One, an adaptation of the book where people are escaping a dystopian world by connecting themselves to […]