Once I started to find out a little bit about “Ready Player One” the book, and how a good chunk of its appeal was based on all the pop culture references it contained, I wondered how they could make a movie that would appeal to a broad audience of people and not just people my age (35+) who love this kind of nostalgic stuff and would be familiar with it. When I saw the trailers, they just didn’t seem to connect with me. But I’m pleased to say that Steven Spielberg has done a pretty good job of balancing nostalgia with enough current references to video games and virtual reality to appeal to kids of today as well as adults.
“READY PLAYER ONE” follows Wade (played by Tye Sheridan), a guy who escapes his poverty-and-problem-filled life by entering THE OASIS, a virtual reality video game world where you can be pretty much anything you want, and look however you want. The reclusive creator of the OASIS, described as kind of a mix of Steve Jobs & Willy Wonka (and played by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance) has died. But his final act is to declare that whatever player can find three keys he hid inside the virtual world, will inherit the trillion-dollar company. Nobody has had any luck for years, until Wade finally breaks through and finds the first key. From there it’s a race through the OASIS (and the real world) for Wade and several others who are also hoping to win the game, including the head of a mega-corporation that wants to own the OASIS so they can make even MORE money.
I really enjoyed how this movie played out. Of course, I was looking forward to the pop culture references and seeing how many I could spot, and I was not disappointed. I spotted A LOT, and I didn’t even scratch the surface of all the stuff they had hidden in there. I looked through some photos after the movie and it was like those “Where’s Waldo” books. Just SO MUCH stuff crammed in almost every shot in the movie. The more you know about 80’s movies and games, the more fun you’ll have watching this.
It also had a very likeable cast, led by Tye Sheridan and Mark Rylance. But we also get Ben Mendelsohn (from Rogue One), Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller (from Deadpool & Big Hero 6) and Hannah John-Kamen (from Game of Thrones). Spielberg plays to their strengths, and it's interesting if you remember they only are live-acting for half the movie. The other half, they’re voice acting their OASIS avatars. So it’s doubly impressive, in my opinion.
No surprise that the visuals in the movie are amazing, but I also liked the message the movie (eventually) tells about why even though we often want to get away from real life hardships by disappearing into a virtual world where we can be whatever we want, it’s so important to try and improve our real world and not just escape from it.
A couple of warnings though… it is rated PG-13 and has some fairly intense moments. There’s a scene literally ripped out of the movie “The Shining” where it could be pretty freaky for young viewers. It also has a lot of references to video games (no surprise) and uses a lot of video game slang that might seem like a foreign language to those not familiar with how those online worlds work. So you might think twice before taking a kid under age 10 or 11, but on the other hand you might also need them to explain the video game slang to you!
Overall, however, I really enjoyed “READY PLAYER ONE” and can’t wait to see it again. I found it to be a fun mixture of action and mystery, puzzles and peril, touchstones to the past and touches of the future. Sometimes watching the movie was like playing a game of Pop Culture “I Spy” and (I am just the target audience for that!) but I didn't feel like the movie relied too heavily on the pop culture references alone for you to understand the story, but instead those images/references played just enhanced what was happening and/or acted as bonus fun for those who were familiar with them. Personally, I couldn't believe that 1) there was a reference to the movie "Krull" (the "ninja star" that cuts off I-Rok's arm) and 2) that I easily and completely got the reference while I'm sure everyone else in the theater was wondering what this weirdo was laughing about.
Worth pointing out that I have only read the first 15 pages of the book so I’m speaking as someone who only knew the basics about the story before watching it. And fitting that on Easter weekend, a movie full of “Easter Eggs” comes to theaters!
Review by AndyVIP 8BlockedParent2018-03-30T12:54:26Z
Once I started to find out a little bit about “Ready Player One” the book, and how a good chunk of its appeal was based on all the pop culture references it contained, I wondered how they could make a movie that would appeal to a broad audience of people and not just people my age (35+) who love this kind of nostalgic stuff and would be familiar with it. When I saw the trailers, they just didn’t seem to connect with me. But I’m pleased to say that Steven Spielberg has done a pretty good job of balancing nostalgia with enough current references to video games and virtual reality to appeal to kids of today as well as adults.
“READY PLAYER ONE” follows Wade (played by Tye Sheridan), a guy who escapes his poverty-and-problem-filled life by entering THE OASIS, a virtual reality video game world where you can be pretty much anything you want, and look however you want. The reclusive creator of the OASIS, described as kind of a mix of Steve Jobs & Willy Wonka (and played by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance) has died. But his final act is to declare that whatever player can find three keys he hid inside the virtual world, will inherit the trillion-dollar company. Nobody has had any luck for years, until Wade finally breaks through and finds the first key. From there it’s a race through the OASIS (and the real world) for Wade and several others who are also hoping to win the game, including the head of a mega-corporation that wants to own the OASIS so they can make even MORE money.
I really enjoyed how this movie played out. Of course, I was looking forward to the pop culture references and seeing how many I could spot, and I was not disappointed. I spotted A LOT, and I didn’t even scratch the surface of all the stuff they had hidden in there. I looked through some photos after the movie and it was like those “Where’s Waldo” books. Just SO MUCH stuff crammed in almost every shot in the movie. The more you know about 80’s movies and games, the more fun you’ll have watching this.
It also had a very likeable cast, led by Tye Sheridan and Mark Rylance. But we also get Ben Mendelsohn (from Rogue One), Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller (from Deadpool & Big Hero 6) and Hannah John-Kamen (from Game of Thrones). Spielberg plays to their strengths, and it's interesting if you remember they only are live-acting for half the movie. The other half, they’re voice acting their OASIS avatars. So it’s doubly impressive, in my opinion.
No surprise that the visuals in the movie are amazing, but I also liked the message the movie (eventually) tells about why even though we often want to get away from real life hardships by disappearing into a virtual world where we can be whatever we want, it’s so important to try and improve our real world and not just escape from it.
A couple of warnings though… it is rated PG-13 and has some fairly intense moments. There’s a scene literally ripped out of the movie “The Shining” where it could be pretty freaky for young viewers. It also has a lot of references to video games (no surprise) and uses a lot of video game slang that might seem like a foreign language to those not familiar with how those online worlds work. So you might think twice before taking a kid under age 10 or 11, but on the other hand you might also need them to explain the video game slang to you!
Overall, however, I really enjoyed “READY PLAYER ONE” and can’t wait to see it again. I found it to be a fun mixture of action and mystery, puzzles and peril, touchstones to the past and touches of the future. Sometimes watching the movie was like playing a game of Pop Culture “I Spy” and (I am just the target audience for that!) but I didn't feel like the movie relied too heavily on the pop culture references alone for you to understand the story, but instead those images/references played just enhanced what was happening and/or acted as bonus fun for those who were familiar with them. Personally, I couldn't believe that 1) there was a reference to the movie "Krull" (the "ninja star" that cuts off I-Rok's arm) and 2) that I easily and completely got the reference while I'm sure everyone else in the theater was wondering what this weirdo was laughing about.
Worth pointing out that I have only read the first 15 pages of the book so I’m speaking as someone who only knew the basics about the story before watching it. And fitting that on Easter weekend, a movie full of “Easter Eggs” comes to theaters!
I encourage you to give this one a try!