Ready Player One

The preview for this film did excite me. The film rights for the book were being fought over before the book was even released! Those writing the film adaptation of "Ready Player One" did not expect Steven Spielberg, whose past works were sources of inspiration for the original novel, to accept the offer to direct. The final product was an enjoyable experience but not perfect. Part of that is because we all have different aspects of pop culture that we like more than others and you can't please everyone. This movie will appeal more to those who play video games and I obviously have an attraction for movies and TV shows. I was hoping for more references to movies from the 80's including those made by Spielberg and even though I was somewhat dissatisfied, I can't say I was completely let down.

I like how "Ready Player One" addresses many of the social problems that technology is causing in our society. When you go online for example, you can be anonymous and lose all sense of your true identity. You can also stop caring about real world problems. My favourite moment of pop culture in "Ready Player One" was ironically the second quest because I have not seen "The Shining". Thankfully, I was familiar enough with its iconic images and scenes that I could enjoy this part. Spielberg by the way was a friend of director Stanley Kubrick and Spielberg made "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" after Kubrick, who spent decades trying to develop the film, passed away. The rebuilt Overlook Hotel, whether real or CGI, was very impressive mostly because of filmmakers replicated the color scheme perfectly. While this part of the story wasn't in the original novel, I still appreciated the respect the filmmakers paid to this classic horror film. My favourite story moment is when the High Five trick Sorrento into thinking he's not in the OASIS. I also liked the Willy Wonka comparisons throughout "Ready Player One" and even though attempts were made to make Wade an Charlie-type underdog, his abilities in the OASIS as Parzival worked against this. Another mistake is the scene where the Stacks are attacked because Wade doesn't seem very shaken by this event. This flaw however may be the result of a general flaw of the whole movie; something that other moviegoers feel was one of the good qualities of "Ready Player One". The movie has a fast pace and for me, it is hard for me to relate to the characters and feel the emotion of the story if the show is progressing faster than it should. Because of how fast the story was being told, I failed to catch how IOI found out the location of the last quest. Another consequence of the fast pace is that Wade's speech did not have the same emotional impact on the film audience as it did for the OASIS players. Yet another consequence is that you can't appreciate all the pop culture references in "Ready Player One". Maybe that was on purpose so that people would have to see the movie again to take in all the Disney, comic book and video game characters that they missed. During the climax, part of me wished that the film had been divided into two movies so as to solve a lot of these pace problems. Another question I have is why Sorrento did not kill Wade. Was it because Sorrento saw that there was no point or was he moved by Wade's reaction? A final piece of criticism I have with "Ready Player One" is that the classic Delorean sound effects I am used to were not utilized. The Delorean in this movie sounds realistic but its science fiction version is what became part of pop culture. Despite all the flaws I am mentioning, "Ready Player One" still found a way to entertain and that I believe is because of the man making this show.

I ended up watching two Steven Spielberg movies in the week preceding the release of this show. By coincidence, I found "Schindler's List" on sale on blu-ray and I had already planned to watch "Minority Report" because it was the last time Spielberg depicted the future. I wanted to watch Robert Zemeckis' "Back to the Future" films that Spielberg executive produced but I did not have the time. "Ready Player One" was quite an epic crossover flick but this isn't a new task for Spielberg. For another Zemeckis classic, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", Spielberg again as the executive producer negotiated the inclusion of the various toons. Spielberg was probably the only filmmaker who could get "Ready Player One" made with all of its cultural references. The filmmakers were able to acquire 80% of the properties that they initially set out to secure. Spielberg however did not want to make any self-references to avoid coming across as vain. It was that kind of filmmaking which ruined one of his earlier films, "1941". I don't think a few more self-references in "Ready Player One" would have been bad in my opinion. They could have found a good balance. The movie did showcase filmmaking characteristics that Spielberg is known for such as lens flares. Much of this movie was made with motion capture obviously but this isn't new territory of Spielberg either, having more recently directed "The Adventures of Tintin" and "The BFG". I think the level of realism with the motion capture gave "Ready Player One" its Oscar nomination for its visual effects.

Spielberg employed a few of his past collaborators for this film. His long time editor Michael Khan shared his duties on "Ready Player One" with Sarah Broshar and they both edited "The Post" the year before for Spielberg. Janusz Kaminski has been Spielberg's cinematographer for 18 straight films but missing from the film credits of this movie is composer John Williams. Because of scheduling, he couldn't compose for both "The Post" and "Ready Player One" and I wish he had done the latter personally. Then again, to have Alan Silvestri composing a new film for Spielberg that features a Delorean is a dream come true. I loved the musical cue that Silvestri used for the activation of the Zemeckis Cube. Moving to the cast of the film, the search for an unknown for the lead role did not pan out. Thankfully, Tye Sheridan did fine (the last film character I saw him play also wore a visor). By the time this movie was released, T.J. Miller's voice had become instantly recognizable and I liked him as i-R0k. Two actors that have motion capture experience from previous Spielberg films perform both of the creators of the OASIS: Simon Pegg from "Tintin" and Mark Rylance from "The BFG". This is Rylance's third film with Spielberg, having won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar on their first film together. As a final note, the writer of the original novel, Ernest Cline, adapted his own story for the movie screen with Zak Penn and Penn's film credits are pretty impressive from a pop culture standpoint.

I am confident in saying that "Ready Player One" may get better over time. It was hard to follow on first viewing. I still find it cool that a book inspired by the works of Steven Spielberg was adapted into a movie that Spielberg decided to direct. The story came full circle but the final result doesn't quite match the hype. Spielberg said that this was his most difficult film since "Saving Private Ryan" and the third hardest film of his whole career. I hypothesize that this was in part due to the fast tracking of "The Post" into production for political reasons the year before. Maybe if Spielberg had made "Ready Player One" first, it might have been better but I have no evidence to back my theory up. Gamers should love this movie and I can't call myself a gamer. Despite the shortcomings though, I am glad I saw this movie.

3.5 Stars out of 5