Last weekend, I saw Spielberg’s latest film Ready Player One in theaters. Going into it I had high expectations: this was, after all, a Steven Spielberg film- the same man who directed Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, E.T., and so much more. It did not disappoint!
Credit: Warner Bros
Based on the 2011 novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is about dystopian future. We follow a teenage boy named Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game called the OASIS. The winner inherits the game creator’s fortune. In the game, anyone can be or do anything, thus its popularity.
James Holliday, the creator of OASIS and Wade’s personal hero, was a big fan of 1980s culture and put many of them in his game. This naturally lends itself to lots of cultural references from both the 80s and present day that can be seen throughout the movie. As an audience member, I found myself pleasantly surprised at the amount of things I was able to recognize, and it really added to my enjoyment to the film.
If you are not a fan of action sequences, Ready Player One is not the film for you. Wade and his friends spend a lot of time fighting bad guys who want to monopolize OASIS for their own personal gain. A good portion of the screen time is dedicated to intense, highly detailed fight scenes both in the real world and in the game that really throw you through a loop. The stakes are very high and Ready Player One does not hold back in showing that.
The thing that stuck out to me most about Ready Player One was the INCREDIBLE CGI. With a reported budget of around 175 million dollars, you expect a high production value, and a high production value is what you get. Every single frame of every single scene is detailed to the max. I can only imagine the amount of work that went into making this film look and feel as realistic as possible. The seamless combination of real and virtual worlds is something that cannot be overstated. You have to see it to believe it.
Ready Player One is packed with everything that makes an entertaining movie: wall to wall action, humor, cultural references, likable characters, and amazing special effects/CGI. Basically, a Marvel movie but without the superheroes. The film has it all–perhaps even a little too much. While it did not take away from my enjoyment of the movie, I found myself overwhelmed at times at everything I was seeing. If you think the content has the makings of a perfect kids movie, you’d be wrong. Don’t take a child to see Ready Player One unless you’re prepared to answer lots of complicated questions about how it all works. With a current rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.9/10 on IMDb, the majority agree: this movie is awesome. I personally can’t wait to see it again.