Review of Ready Player One (2018)
Ready Player One (2018), directed by Steven Spielberg, is a hugely anticipated sci-fi adventure movie based on the 2011 novel of the same name written by Ernest Cline. The general plot of this movie, without spoilers, follows a teen living in a dystopianworld in the year 2045 in which everyone seems to be obsessed with living in this virtual world, the Oasis. Essentially, everyone has their own avatar and goes on their own journey and they live their own lives in this virtual reality almost as a replacement for real life. The movie then explains that the creator of this online world has hidden keys in certain levels and the person to collect all three keys will then own the rights to the Oasis; and as expected, corruption and foul play ensues.
As a video game fan myself, I was incredibly excited when I heard what this movie was about and how high the budget was going to be. However, I was massively disappointed. My problems with this film began when they felt the need to describe what an ‘easter egg’ was to a whole generation of gamers. I understand that many people watching the movie may not know this video game term, however, I feel that it could have been explained in way that was far less obvious and patronising. And from there the movie and video game references were just too obvious and not even done well. For some reason, everyone in this world was obsessed with the music, film and pop culture from the 1980s, and so there were references from 80s pop culture just thrown in all over the place whether it did anything for the film or not.
To be honest, Ready Player One just kind of seemed all over the place; due to the patronising way they attempted to present reference jokes, I genuinely felt as if I were getting dumber the more I watched. Many of the ‘jokes’ in this movie didn’t land at all, they just felt forced and made me feel uncomfortable. This film honestly didn’t require comedic one liners yet they were everywhere and each one of them fell flat. I honestly expected so much more from such a hyped up, budgeted Hollywood blockbuster, particularly one directed by Steven Spielberg.
The only thing I think I enjoyed about this film was the general plot and the action sequences, which makes me feel that reading the book would completely replace having to watch the film. I don't know who they thought they were aiming this film at but I feel like Ready Player One would have been much more impressive a generation ago. Showing this film to the current generation of gamers just doesn't make it seem at all impressive. This is perhaps one of the most overrated and disappointing movies I have ever seen.
