A Whole Lot of Blasts from the Past: A Review of Ready Player One

directed by Steven Spielberg
written by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline

After years of delivering mostly "awards bait" adult fare, and a few misfires (coughcoughINDIANAJONESANDTHEKINGDOMOFTHECRYSTALSKULLcoughcough) Steven Spielberg delivers his most engaging, pure popcorn movie since Minority Report.

Based on the novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One tells a story set in the not-so-distant future, where all of humanity is enthralled by a massive, multi-player online role playing game-cum-virtual-reality-platform known as the Oasis, which was created by reclusive genius James Halliday (Mark Rylance) with the help of his former partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg). So massive is the game that it has actually become a driving economic force all by itself, and it is somehow the great equalizer in a world beset by egregious inequality, a world in which trailer parks are now filled with whole stacks of trailers.

Upon Halliday's death, a hidden message that he left is revealed to all the players in the Oasis telling them about three Easter Eggs that, when uncovered, will lead to a fantastic treasure: ownership of the Oasis. The mad scramble to find the Easter Eggs begins, at the forefront of which is Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a monolithic corporation headed by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) a ruthless CEO with vague ties to Halliday, who employs full-time gamers in a bid to seize control of the Oasis. On the other end of the spectrum, living in one of the aforementioned trailer stacks is Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who goes by the online avatar Parzival. Wade spends all of his time in the Oasis to escape the drudgery of his life, and when the contest is announced, he jumps at the chance to win it. With his encyclopedic knowledge of Halliday (including his love of the 80s pop-culture he grew up with), and the help of his online friends Aech, Sho, Daito and the mysterious Art3mis (whose appearances are meant to be a bit of mystery for most of the film, which is why the actors' names aren't mentioned), he might just have a chance.

Just as Minority Report presented an interesting moral and philosophical quandary (i.e. should people be punished for crimes that have not been committed yet but merely foreseen) all wrapped within a piece of sublime entertainment, this film challenges our cultural obsession with the internet, particularly internet gaming, while presenting a thoroughly engaging piece of popcorn entertainment. This is the Spielberg I grew up with in the 80s, not just because of the references with which the film is packed to the gills. No, this is just the rock-solid storytelling that made watching movies such an interesting pastime when I was a kid, before the 90s rolled on and the likes of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay made a career out of dumbing down the blockbuster. From the cat-and-mouse between IOI and the gamers/resistance to the hold-your-breath tension of each time Wade and his friends approach a puzzle, Spielberg just keeps the thrills coming. The slick animation of the virtual world is gorgeous to behold as well, and ILM and whoever else was involved in realizing the Oasis have really outdone themselves here, having vaulted clear over the dreaded Uncanny Valley with this genuinely immersive viewing experience.

Of course, brilliant animation would mean nothing if the human performances didn't work, but Spielberg coaxes winning turns from his entire cast, from Sheridan to the supporting actors, particularly Mark Rylance, who seems to be his muse of sorts, as the shy, nerdy Halliday. It's the first time I've heard Rylance do an American accent (as it's the first time I've heard one from Simon Pegg, of whom I've long been a fan), and they both pull it off flawlessly. I wouldn't mind seeing Rylance in many of Spielberg's other future projects as well.

Unfortunately one of Spielberg's other frequent collaborators, legendary composer John Williams couldn't make it to this particular party due to his Star Wars commitments, but Avengers and Back to the Future composer Alan Silvestri ably fills that gap with some pretty stirring music that pays loving homage to the 80s while coming up with some new flourishes as well. It would have been weirdly entertaining to see an Easter Egg of Mac and Me the truly atrocious late-80s E.T. knockoff which Silvestri actually scored, but there was no such luck.

Speaking of Easter Eggs, though, the film was chock full of them, so many that they actually deserve their own post.

There were drawbacks, of course. Because this was a throwback to the kind of movie I'd grown up on, that meant a few contrivances and unfortunate narrative cliches came along with it, like an Asian character very conveniently knowing martial arts at an opportune time. Also, having people of color serve as sideki--err supporting characters feels so distinctly 80s these days, particularly in the wake of the fantastic Black Panther. I have been waiting for years (yes, before it became fashionable to think about black/POC people in lead roles in action movies) for Steven Spielberg to direct a popcorn movie with a black, male lead, and I'm still waiting. At least Pixar finally broke Disney's white-boys-only streak with Coco last year.

Still, it's been so long since Spielberg's shown this kind of form that it's easy to forgive him these tropes.

7.5/10