"Ready Player One" Movie Review

By: James Southworth
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

When you think of childhood nostalgia, one of the names that is sure to come to mind instantly is Steven Spielberg. Movies like "Jaws", "Jurassic Park", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and "E.T." are household names all across America. It makes sense why they are, as there is just something about them that is easy to attach on to (even though, and I know this is gonna be controversial, I'm not a big fan of "Jaws"). Spielberg is still going strong today, with his liberal championing of news media film, "The Post", garnering many Oscar nods. "Ready Player One" is incredibly different to that movie though, as this one is all about having a fun time reliving your childhood memories. This movie is filled with pop culture references in its virtual reality world known as Oasis, while also telling the story of main character Parzival being disenfranchised with the real world and wanting to change it. When the creator of Oasis dies, he tasks its players to hunt for three different keys throughout his reality, and if they do they will get an ultimate prize. Parzival along with a few other friends accept this quest. They soon realize this mission is more important than they realized. I've had a tough time really thinking about my culminating thoughts on this movie. There were several moments I enjoyed, especially the fun action scenes and a lot of the cool pop culture references thrown in. But, I also can't help but point out that the action moments and references bog down any semblance of character development, and there is a real lack of any emotional stakes.

Now don't get too mad by my slightly low rating just yet. A 2.5/5 does imply a mostly negative outlook. I wouldn't say that's entirely representative of my viewpoints on this film, as there was a lot I enjoyed. Still, I couldn't give this movie a higher rating than that based on how I felt about it overall. Let's talk about what works in this film, because there are a good amount of positives. I think the visuals are most certainly the best part of this film. It uses a lot of CGI, but Spielberg is so good at making the CGI real that it never becomes irritating. You can tell a lot of care went into every frame of the film. There are not really any shots in the virtual world that look lazy. I like that the creators took a lot of care in making the virtual world feel as tangible as it could possibly be, so that we as the audience would have an understanding as to why so many people would want to go into that world opposed to the literal trash heap of the real world in 2045. You get a sense that there's a childlike wonderment that the special effects team wanted to give off, and I think that it translates well. I also think that Spielberg still has an assured hand in the directing department. Even though the story of this film is very weak (more on that later), Spielberg still takes all he can out of it to make something that is typically enjoyable to watch if you don't think about it too much. There's some plot points that don't quite make sense to me, and there's some conveniences that occur, but it's not that big of an issue in the long run. I also thought that, based on the trailer, this film would be way too much of overbearing nostalgia. This isn't always the case, as there is some great utilization of recognizable characters. The highlight moments are with The Iron Giant and Gundam. There's another moment here where characters literally travel into a classic movie scene that is my favorite part of the film. I was grinning the whole time; it was so good and I don't want to spoil it for you. The times when the pop culture references worked best was when they were directly effecting the plot.

As far as the performances in the movie go, it is unfortunately a bit of a mixed bag. There wasn't any particular performance I despised, but there weren't that many that stood out either. That isn't entirely the cast's fault, as most of these characters were weakly written with minimal, if any, development. The standout performance of this film was easily Olivia Cooke as Artem3s/Samantha, the love interest to Parzival/Wade. Cooke is an actress that I am glad is finally getting some recognition. While her character isn't very well-developed (we as the viewers know basically nothing about her apart from she likes Wade and that she's a part of a resistance against the evil corporation of the film), Cooke brings enough of her own captivating persona to the table to make her character work. I also thought Ben Medelsohn did a fine job as the villain Sorrento. His character as it was written was a pretty bland corporate type, but Mendelsohn makes this character far more interesting than they deserved to be. The best developed character of the film was undoubtedly Halliday (the creator of Oasis), and Mark Rylance does a good job of disappearing into the role. I found this character to be very charming and interesting. It would've made more sense for him to be the main character, as his backstory is far more compelling than Parzival's. Honorable mention performances go to Simon Pegg giving an understated turn as Ogden Morrow, and T.J. Miller providing an endearing and funny performance as I-R0k. Unfortunately, the weakest performance of the movie is Tye Sheridan as Parzival. This protagonist is so incredibly boring. We've had so many characters like him in dystopian movies, characters that are tired of the reality they're in and want to rise up against it. I think there are interesting ways to develop characters like this, but Parzival is not a good example. I did not care for him; he's really the type of character that you could replace yourself with and it wouldn't be any different. The actors of Parzival's friend group, including Lena Waithe, Philip Zhao, and Win Morisaki, are all just not that great either. They don't give cringy performances by any means, but I forgot their characters as soon as I left the theater. It's not really a good sign when there's only one lead performance in a film that is truly interesting. Mendelsohn, Rylance, and the rest of the supporting cast can only do so much.

There is one main issue I have with this film, and it's not one that can be easily avoided: the story. At the end of the day, it felt like I was watching a casual video game story line. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, as there are many video games which can have just as good stories as feature films. That's just not the case with this movie. The characters' only goals are to search and find these three keys in the game before the government does. It seems that the only reason they want to do this is so they can stop the government from taking the game over and installing ads. That just doesn't sound all that menacing to me. There's hardly any sense of real stakes in this film for almost its entire run time. There's not a feeling of legitimate desperation from any character, with both the government and the main characters taking their sweet time to find the keys. The movie didn't give me much reason to care for the main characters to succeed, besides the fact that it was just something I was supposed to do. Also, like I mentioned before, the characters in this movie are bland stereotypes. Even though I liked Cooke and Mendelsohn's performances, for example, their characters still had no unique qualities about them. The relationship between Parzival and Artem3s happens out of nowhere. I get that it happened in a video game setting, but even Artem3s in context of the movie questions why Wade so suddenly falls in love with her. So, why not have their relationship happen in the real world, and why not have more scenes take place in the real world, so we can care for these characters' real selves? I think a balance between the virtual and real world was needed to hone in the movie's main theme of how it's important to be really connected with people. I also have to admit there were times when the barrage of pop culture elements got a little tiresome to me, especially in times when it was there just to be there.

Overall there's one word to describe "Ready Player One": fine. I think that the problems of this movie can't be overlooked, as I was realizing them while I was watching the movie. But there were also plenty of moments where I could just turn my brain off for a while and watch some fun action sequences and cool pop culture characters/moments on screen. Those moments made the film worth watching despite its flaws. I didn't care for any of the characters, but I could at least enjoy what they were experiencing, as well as appreciate some of the solid performances from the cast. I wish this movie had been a little better. It was about as good as I was expecting it to be based on the trailer. "Ready Player One" isn't a bad movie, but it also isn't a great movie. It's an experience that's best done with friends and a bag full of popcorn.