Off the Cuff Reviews Ready Player One (2018)

(Originally posted April 11th, 2018)

Okay, well, I didn't know I'd be watching this when I woke up today, but here we are. Ready Player One (2018) Is a film that's ben driving the internet crazy recently, with some people gung ho for the concept, and other people just about ready to tear their own eyes out at the thought of it. And what do I think? ... I can see where both sides are coming from. Starring Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts/Parzival, Olivia Cooke as Samantha Cook/Art3mis, Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento, T. J. Miller as i-R0k, Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow and Mark Rylance as James Halliday.

Ready Player One (2018)

One of the easiest things to enjoy about this movie is the world. The film does a surprisingly good job of establishing the world of the movie quicker than you'd expect, and appropriately, allows you to immerse yourself into the film much easier than I thought. I was also worried that the scenes outside of the Oasis would be boring fluff while waiting to get back into the Oasis but, again, they do a surprisingly great job of finding that balance. The Oasis itself is a world that I definitely believe could exist, and not to mention, it looks phenomenal. The visual effects in this film are gorgeous to look at, and the film never has to fall back on the excuse that it's 'just a video game'. A lot of effort went into making this film look as beautiful as possible, and it absolutely succeeded.

Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts

I do need to mention the pop culture references, which I know a lot of people will have a problem with. Personally, I didn't mind them. Wait, no, scratch that. I was really on board. The film rarely throws a pop culture reference in for the sake of throwing a pop culture reference in. Any sequences which actually exploit a certain element of pop culture all have plot-specific and character-specific reasons for being there, and it never feels forced. Otherwise, for the most part they're just there in the background as player avatars, and it's completely believable. Give a nerd a world with limitless potentials, and of course they're going to make a whole bunch of pop culture stuff come to life. An easy point you can make is that we never see any pop culture stuff from the future, since the film takes place in 2045. To that I say, how do you know we aren't seeing references to pop culture that hasn't happened yet? We don't know, because it hasn't happened yet. Admittedly, there are one or two moments where a pop culture reference doesn't quite land, or they throw one in there for the sake of it, but by that point, you're so on board with the world that it really doesn't matter.

The Iron Giant

The characters are, admittedly, hit-and-miss. By far, the best character in the entire film is James Halliday. Every scene that he's in, every time they delve into his past, any emotional moment that involves Halliday, it's all executed perfectly. Mark Rylance does a fantastic job in this role, and his chemistry with SImon Pegg is fantastic. T. J. Miller's voice stands out a bit, but, again, it makes sense in the world, and he's a genuinely funny character. Wade Watts and Samantha Cook are... fine. When they're on their own or in the game world, it's great, and they both have really great and interesting backstories. But as soon as they introduce a love arc with them, I wasn't on board. It seems like they just shoehorned it in for the sake of having a love arc in there. Particularly with Artemis, she was such a cool character, and her backstory was really interesting, but they just threw it all away to have her be the love interest, which you know I hate. Their acting was good, so it wasn't so bad, and they definitely sold it, but it was just a route I wish they hadn't taken.

Mark Rylance as James Halliday

But the villain? Oh, my God, talk about the guy in the suit. This guy was so annoying, and I don't mean annoying like a good villain who you hate because he's always one step ahead. If anything, he's always one step behind, it's just his position of power that makes him such a threat. There's something that's shown early on that you know is going to come back in the conclusion that just makes him look like the stupidest motherf***er on the planet. The actor has an intimidating presence, and every now and then, he's genuinely threatening, but most of the time? No. He's only there to give the heroes someone to rebel against, and to drive home the message that the film's trying to get across. Oh, yeah, and about that...

Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento

So, in the last half-hour or so, the film takes a bit of a turn. Not only are the pop culture references much more condensed, but they attempt to wrap up all of the messages that the movie wants to convey. And, when the movie embraces how stupid and corny it's being, it absolutely works. The final fight scene is fantastic, just because it's 100% self-aware about how ridiculous it is and it steers into the skid. Even the emotional message involving Halliday, again, works completely. But then, all of the morals that are gotten across in the real world (oh, yeah, there's more than one) just don't land, mainly because the movie's not self-aware about itself anymore. It thinks it's being really insightful and deep, when it's just not. You can't have a movie a ridiculous as this only for it to get super-serious at the end, unless it's The Lego Movie. It works for that movie because it's a kid's film. This doesn't work because it's for... actually, I have not idea who this film was targeted at. Is it for kids? Adults? People in the middle? I don't know, thanks to the ending, the film can get a little messy with its tone at times. Sometimes it knows exactly what kind of movie it is, and when it does, it's an incredibly unique and exciting movie. When it doesn't... it's sloppy. And, I'm pretty sure a lot of that comes down to the inspiration: the original novel.

Tye Sheridan as Parzival and Olivia Cooke as Art3mis

So, Ready Player One (2018), whilst not perfect, is probably the best adaptation of its source material that could possibly have existed. Does that mean the book should have been adapted in the first place? I don't know. That's for you to decide. All I know is that I'm glad I saw it. Would I watch it again...? Maybe once more. It's definitely a journey, and appropriately enough, I think the best way to enjoy a movie like this is to shut your brain off and just let yourself get sucked into the world. 6.5/10