Film Review - Ready Player One (12A)

I just came here to escape.

Ready Player One is directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel of the same name - a 2011 science-fiction phenomenon written by geek-extraordinaire Ernest Cline. It explores the potential of virtual reality, while cunningly referencing the pop-culture of the 1980s - futurism and nostalgia wrapped into one slick, eye-popping package. But be warned - its full-on embracing of computer-generated mayhem will alienate some viewers, even as it delights others. 

The year is 2045 and America is an over-populated dystopian hell. Wade Watt, a teenager living in a ramshackle San Francisco slum, escapes from his drab life into The Oasis, a vast virtual wonderland. The Oasis' creator, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), was a reclusive genius who shaped his creation from the video games and movies of his youth. Now deceased, he has willed the entire virtual playground (a multi-billion dollar business where real-world fortunes can be made and lost) to whoever can find the golden Easter Egg hidden within it. 

Keen gamer Wade takes on the challenge in the virtual guise of suave racer Parzival, along with acquaintances like the hulking Aech (as in letter 'H') and sexy road-queen Art3mis. In The Oasis you can take on any avatar, people's real-world identities (and motivations) remaining questionable. Less of a mystery are the intentions of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a ruthless corporation whose CEO, Nolan Sorrento (Darkest Hour's Ben Mendelsohn), will stop at nothing, nothing I tell you, to seize the Easter Egg and thus take control of The Oasis.

Ready Player One is my second crazy special effects-fest in a fortnight, but there are aspects that make this one so much better than Pacific Rim:Uprising. It's got a clear narrative through-line for starters, that never drowns in all the spectacular visuals; our hero is making real-world decisions, forming bonds and discovering enemies that influence his virtual-world quest at all points. Spielberg's visual storytelling comes effectively into play, particularly when showing the interaction between real and virtual aspects of the story. And the characters are sufficiently well-established to provide a gravitational centre for the whirl of on-screen craziness. Wade (Tye Sheridan) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke from The Limehouse Golem) are likeable protagonists, while Mendelsohn proves almost as dastardly a villain as he did in Rogue One.

In addition, the movie is an absolute treasure chest of pop-culture references, with an emphasis on the cinema, video games and music of the inventor's (and Ernest Cline's) beloved '80s. I won't preempt a single one of them, since it's more fun being taken by surprise. How they are woven into the fabric of the virtual world and the plot, however, is consistently ingenious and a potential source of delight - not least to video game nuts.

And that's the point to remember. Ready Player One is a gamer's wet dream and has frantic visuals to match. It answers the question 'What would it be like to inhabit all your favourite games at the same time?', with a number of sequences threatening total sensory overload. More than usual here, one viewer's heaven is likely to be another's hell. Nor does it provide more than flimsy answers to the dystopian questions posed at the story's beginning. Ultimately The Oasis is a vastly more attractive prospect than real-world 2045, which might be a sobering existential comment in itself. 

This is a popcorn film - in fact it's a supersized bucket of popcorn with a scoop of mini-Easter Eggs thrown in for geeks of all ages. It won't change the world (in fact it presents opting out as a reasonable alternative), but it's fun. No more, no less. 

Gut Reaction: Entertained throughout - not to the extent of the recent Star Wars or Black Panther, but entertained nonetheless.

Where Are the Women?: Olivia Cooke is a heroine worth rooting for, as is... Can't say. Spoiler territory. Oh, and Hannah John-Kamen is a scene-grabbing secondary villain.

Ed's Verdict: 7/10. Magnificently crafted, with enough scintillating detail to make it worth watching again. It's got much more eye-candy than heart, though.