ReelBob: ‘Ready Player One’ ★★★½
By Bob Bloom
“Ready Player One” is a lot of fun. And you’ll get giddy trying to pick out the legion of 1980s’ pop-culture references that inundate the movie.
But “Ready Player One” also offers a subtle message about getting lost in technology and ignoring the real world around you.
The movie, based on Ernest Cline’s best-selling YA novel, from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Cline, is set in Columbus, Ohio, in 2045.
It’s your usual dystopian future in which the world has gone to hell. To escape, most people spend their time in the Oasis, an immersive virtual world where they can be whomever — or whatever — they want.
Wade Watts is one of those people. But, he also is different. The young man, who says his father named him Wade Watts because it sounded like a super hero’s secret identity, is obsessed with the late creator of the Oasis — James Halliday. Before he died, Halliday left clues within his world to three hidden keys that will give the player who finds them control of the Oasis.
Wade and his friends — known as the High Five — take part in the challenge. Wade, whose avatar uses the name Parzival within the Oasis, also gets help from Art3mis, a legendary player.
Together, they begin deciphering Halliday’s clues, allowing Parzival to beat the first challenge and claim a key.
Also seeking the keys is Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a corporation that has hired hundreds of players — called Sixers because they are identified by numbers — to compete in Halliday’s challenges.
IOI, led by Nolan Sorrento, wants to control Oasis, so it — and he — can profit immensely from it.
The major draw of “Ready Player One” is, of course, the hundreds of familiar pop-culture characters, music and images that explode throughout the movie like an erupting volcano.
You can become dizzy trying to pinpoint them all. They range from the Iron Giant to the DeLorean from “Back to the Future” to references from such movies and personalities as “The Shining,” “Excalibur,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “King Kong,” “Jurassic Park,” the devilish doll Chucky and slasher villains Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.
So, it is no surprise that “Ready Player One” was directed by Steven Spielberg. He and the movie are a perfect fit. Cline’s world and Spielberg’s vision of it mesh as well as John Ford and the Old West.
The movie definitely plays into Spielberg’s strength as a storyteller.
And despite the near sensory overload of 1980s’ references, Spielberg keeps you interested and focused on the storyline and characters.
The movie’s 140 minutes fly by. As is usual in the vast majority of Spielberg’s movies, the idea of family is an undercurrent, running through “Ready Player One.
”Wade’s parents were killed when he was a youngster. He lives with an aunt, who constantly berates him, and her abusive boyfriend, who slaps Wade around.
Art3mis, whose real-world name is Samantha Cook, and the High Five are his family, his support system.
Tye Sheridan as Wade and Olivia Cook as Samantha are appealing actors, who capture your hearts because of their courage and vulnerabilities.
Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Sorrento is rather bland and weak. He also isn’t very smart. How he managed to gain control of IOI is a mystery.
“Ready Player Five” is a total geekfest, with so much thrown at you that it will take a couple of viewings to catch it all.
Or, you can wait for the home-entertainment release and watch it frame-by-frame — by utilizing many freeze-frames — to identify the army of Easter Eggs embedded in the movie.
Either way, “Ready Player One” is a cinematic delight, a throwback movie as modern as today.
I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
READY PLAYEER ONE
3½ stars out of 4
(PG-13), science fiction action violence, bloody images, language, suggestive material, partial nudity