Ready Player One: Review

This is a NON-Spoiler review for Steven Spielberg's return to blockbusters - Ready Player One.

Plot Summary: "Set in 2045, people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger."

I have said this before and I'll say it again, Steven Spielberg is my favorite director of all-time. One day I'll write a book-length page about how much I admire him. For me being a guy who wants to be a film director, Spielberg is everything I aspire to be as a director. He really is one of my heroes. And I talked a lot about my thoughts on his latest movies in my review for The Post. But essentially what I said was - I really really enjoy his history films, but I am ready for him to try something different. And this is the exact kind of genre that I was hoping he would go to next. I was pumped for this movie. Spielberg returning to sci-fi in a film that's about nostalgia for the things we love like Back to the Future. And I loved this experience. This movie is a nerd's dream. It is an explosion of all things pop culture. So since I loved this movie so much, I want to talk about the only flaws that I can really think of out of the way.

The only real downside to Spielberg directing this is that he didn't want to reference himself. I haven't read the book (I'm going to soon) but I do know that there were references to Spielberg's movies. And Spielberg only allowed the bare minimum of his stuff. He produced Back to the Future and the Delorean is in the trailer (Which by the way, it was so incredible to see that car on screen again). And there's only one more reference that I caught that was from a Spielberg movie. I think it's kinda sad that we couldn't see things from all of his movies. The OASIS sounds like heaven to me. I am one of those people would choose to grow up in the 80s if he could. I would spend way too much time hanging out with Indiana Jones or ET if I had an OASIS. To be able to completely immerse yourself in that cinematic magic feeling would be incredible. We're definitely not there yet. But as for the movie, I wanted more Spielberg references. He created the blockbuster! Any other flaws that I found were maybe the pacing. One scene felt a bit rushed to me. And there was one really long scene dedicated to a movie that I've never seen. TJ Miller plays a character that I really enjoyed but I felt the writing could have been a bit better. And the last thing would be just more nostalgia. Maybe around the midpoint of the movie, I felt a little hungry for some more OASIS fun with characters from stuff I know. I was invested in the adventure, but I just loved the opening so much that I kinda missed it. But around the third act is when a lot of that fun comes back.

And that's about it for flaws. The opening scene was SO MUCH fun. I was smiling so much for the first 30 minutes of this movie. You were brought into the kingdom of nerdom. This movie really captures the feeling of the 80s and modern day video gaming. Spielberg has really never made a movie with characters like this before. Wade Watts and his best friend feel like video gamers that you'd find today. And Spielberg hasn't really done characters like this before. There is so much in the first 30 minutes and in the last battle that kids from today and kids from the 80s can spot. You spend so much time looking around the scenes for characters that you recognize. I'm going to see a second time today so I'm gonna see who else I can spot. But it really is so much nerd fun that I think a lot of people will enjoy. And it has a really good message towards the end that I think is really good for people to hear. I think that message is that you can have fun in whatever virtual reality you like, if that's movies, music, comics, actual VR, or your phones, just make sure you're also paying attention to your real life and not get so lost in your virtual world. And I think that's a great thing for people young and old to hear. So please go check this movie out.

I think the cast is all really great. Tye Sheridan, Oliva Cooke, Mark Rylance, Ben Mendohlson, Simon Pegg are all great. I thought Tye Sheridan was a great choice to be a modern Marty McFly type character. Honestly, he really reminded me of a young Spielberg. If they make a Spielberg biopic (I'm sure they will), I would cast him. I think this movie deserves the win for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars. The CGI and performance capture is incredible in this movie. I was really sad when I heard that John Williams wouldn't be doing the score for this movie. I believe the deal was that he didn't have the time to do The Last Jedi and both of Spielberg's new movies being The Post and this. So they chose The Post, which I really didn't like. But after seeing the movie and realizing that it is a Delorean that's in the movie and not ET flying across the moon, I'm good with Alan Silvestri. Because there are moments in this movie where the score felt like it was pulled straight out of Back to the Future and I loved it.

So I loved that Spielberg took a break from history to come back to the genre that he helped create. It did feel to me like throughout a lot of the movie he was just executing the script that he didn't write, but at times it really did feel like that Spielberg magic. He really captured that classic 80s movie tone. To quote Marty McFly at the end of the first movie - I left the theater with that feeling of "Oh yeah, everything is great". This movie takes away any concerns about Indiana Jones 5 and replaces it with even more excitement. And I would love a sequel to this movie as well. I want to see this movie again multiple times and read the book now. There is so much to enjoy about this movie and I really hope it does well at the box office. My grade for Ready Player One is an A