The latest title from the great Steven Speilberg takes everyone on an adventure that you should buckle in for. Starring future star, Tye Sheridan and Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance, Ready Player One brings a great cast with an even greater world to explore. There’s plenty of CGI usage, but I can’t deduct any points from the film for that because every scene that involved CGI was gorgeous.
I feel like I’m obligated to buy Ready Player One on Blu-ray because I need to catch all of the pop-culture references I might’ve missed during my first run-through. The Iron Giant is my favorite childhood film of all time; it was awesome seeing him come to life on screen once again, and interact with other iconic characters. The references go far beyond the characters; I spotted specific items in the film, sayings, logic, this film is the most significant nostalgia machine I’ve seen in recent history.
A lot of people are talking about the game world vs. the real world when it comes to Ready Player One. Now, without spoiling anything, people play in the Oasis to avoid the real world, and it doesn’t take long to understand why. The real world is overpopulated at this point, many people are poverty driven, and in the Oasis, people can escape from that reality and be whoever they want to be. Other critics have knocked RPO for having a dull real world opposed to its game world…. well, it’s supposed to be that way.
The goal of Ready Player One sends every Oasis dweller out on a quest to find three Easter eggs hidden throughout the vast entirety of the game. If anyone in the film succeeds in finding all three eggs, they’re granted half a trillion dollars, and ownership to the Oasis itself. It was exciting to watch Parzival and others solve riddles and scale various obstacles to find the eggs.
This film is the first of many in 2018 where I would recommend seeing it in 3D. In fact, seeing Ready Player One in Imax or 3D is an absolute necessity at this point, if you can’t tell already, I highly recommend it. Furthermore, the CGI in Ready Player One holds that Steven Speilberg seal of approval, and you can say that the people behind this film care about it’s quality to a great extent. The character designs of Parzival, I-Rok, Artemis, and others seamlessly blended in with other characters in the world like Harley Quinn, Tracer, and even Beetlejuice. This led me to believe that they were well-known characters before this film’s release, hopefully, for the sake of the film, these characters will become recognizable as years go by.
I know you guys like it when the reviews are short and sweet, but let me talk about one last thing before I close out this piece. The villain. Now, Ben Mendelsohn, who plays corporate A-hole, Sorrento, really sells that demeanor to me. Sorrento is a straightforward villain to buy into; he’s in the game for the money, he saves face in the public eye, he had me convinced that the casting crew hired some random corporate tool to play a villain on camera.
Well, there you have it guys! Ready Player One is out now and is worth checking out for something that carries a PG-13 rating. The projected future that’s portrayed in RPO makes sense and is well thought out. The visuals, soundtrack, and story are all exceptional. Ready Player One has easily waltzed right into my top three films as we head into the second quarter of 2018.
“Time is a precious thing. Never waste it.”
JJ King
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