Ready Player One
In the year 2045 the world will turn to a virtual world known as the Oasis for pure entertainment and escapism. In the Oasis anything can happen, anyone can be anything, it’s a world without limits. But, when creator of the Oasis, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), dies, ownership and the future of the Oasis is left to hang in the balance. As per Halliday’s wishes the new owner will have to come from within the Oasis by passing three tests to discover his final Easter Egg. Whoever posses the egg will have ultimate say in the program’s future, hopefully carrying things forward with the same intent as the creator. But, evil corp IOI is out to overrun the fun with their own breed of corporate gaming, it’ll take the teamwork of Wade (Tye Sheridan) Samantha (Olivia Cooke), Helen (Lena Waithe), Sho (Philip Zhao) and Daito (Win Morisaki) to keep the virtual world free, but, what if there’s no winning this final game?
Directed by Steven Spielberg and based loosely on the novel by Ernest Cline this giant pop culture bomb of amazing proportions sends a massive care package of love to the children of Gen-X who misspent the weekends of their youth in bowling alleys, arcades, or in front of their home consoles playing video games till their fingers throbbed and eyeballs popped out their skulls. An incredibly simple plot at its core, the film doesn’t aim to bend minds or challenge thinking on a straight ahead hero’s quest with a dash of expected love interest; instead, its aim is as true as the games and culture it borrows from, with an intent to entertain, nothing more, check the boxes, mission accomplished. On a technical scale the film spends a great deal of time in a virtual/digitally animated world, to that end, Spielberg is of course no slouch and the visuals are certainly impressive, on an emotional scale though, unfortunately, this is where Ready Player One comes unplugged and soulless. So, it’s a mixed bag, but with the help of nostalgia, and a soundtrack and inspired score by Alan Silvestri enough of the launch sequence has been entered for sufficient liftoff. Ready Player One is rated PG-13.