Harry Situation Reviews: Ready Player One

If you ever wanted to see a movie featuring the Iron Giant, DC superheroes, Street Fighter, Battletoads, Master Chief and Halo, Chucky, the Delorean from Back to the Future, King Kong, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, Tracer from Overwatch, Starcraft, Gundam, and MechaGodzilla; you’re wish is granted.

Ready Player One is the newest film by all-time greatest film director Steven Spielberg, based off the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. What’s it about? Much like the book, it’s pretty much pop culture the movie.

The actual story is that in the future a virtual reality game called the OASIS, created by a brilliant but reclusive game designer named James Halliday (played by Mark Rylance), is the single biggest hit and most played game of all time. You can do anything and be whoever you want to be in this virtual world. After James Halliday passed away, he created a challenge for all the players that will grant them control over his video game. The hunt is on, and one of these players named Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan) is determined to find all the clues before a corrupt business official (played by Ben Mendelsohn) does.

This movie was an absolute blast to watch. It may be because of the nostalgia goggles I have on, or that I’ve recognized over a hundred different references so far while watching the movie. Either way, I had fun.

First of all this was just one gorgeous looking movie with all the CGI. If you’ve read the book, you know that there would have to be a ton of CGI everywhere in the OASIS, and Steven Spielberg is the only director that can make it all artistic. Everything brought to life in the OASIS looked so fantastic.

The acting was good here too. I think Spielberg knows just the right people for the roles of his film. Everybody does a good job. Even the villain was great. I think Ben Mendelsohn plays douchebag characters perfectly. He was one in the Dark Knight Rises and Rogue One, and he was just great in this film too.

I also like how the soundtrack to this movie had an 80s vibe to it. Tons of classic songs like Van Halen’s Jump and Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. I wonder it’s available in stores yet. I would listen the shit out of it.

Also, gotta mention the awesome amount of pop culture references and easter eggs scattered throughout the whole movie. I giggled with pure fanboyisms every time I recognized something or someone I knew from different media, and I loved seeing it all come together on the big screen. Seeing that huge fight towards the end is well worth the price of admission.

I will say this however: one of the big takeaways, if you’ve read the book, is how the film greatly differs from its source. I won’t get into specific details since it will spoil both the book and movie. But if you have read it before, you’ll definitely notice the big changes. What they did was they basically Jurassic Parked it, meaning that the mains story and plot details are still present but do not happen quite the same context as the source material. And as the late author Michael Crichton co-wrote the film version of Jurassic Park, author Ernest Cline co-wrote the screenplay to this film.

But that’s the thing, I already expected something like this from Steven Spielberg. I’ve read both novelizations of Jaws and Jurassic Park, and both films heavily differed from their sources too. Yet they’re still critically praised films because of how they differed. While I kinda smirked every time something happened in the film that wasn’t present in the book, it never really bothered me because the film was too enjoyable to knit-pick all the details.

You’re not going to see this movie to see how well it adapts from the book. You’re going to see it for the nostalgia sense and the spectical awe that director Steven Spielberg can provide. I really loved watching this movie, and I’ll probably watch it again and again for the nostalgia and pop culture blast. If you’re a purist who has read the novel and is hoping it’ll be properly be adapted, you’re gonna walk out disappointed. But if you’re looking for a fun movie to count the number of cameos and references, this is definitely you’re film. It’s something for fanboys and girls of all spectrums.

Positives:

-References and Easter eggs

-Outstanding special effects

-Good solid acting

-80s Soundtrack

-Spielberg’s direction

-Nostalgia fest

Negatives:

-Greatly differs from book

Final Grade: A-

I also highly recommend reading the book by Ernest Cline too. It’s a really good read. With the new ads on Prose now I saw one for Audible. If I can make a suggestion, check out audible.com sometime and look up a copy of this book. It’s narrated by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame.

So there’s my thoughts on Ready Player One. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? And if you’ve seen it, how many references did you catch? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on my page or in the Review Portal, here at Prose.com!

Best Quote:

James Halliday: “The best thing about reality is it’s real.”

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