Ready Player One - Movie Review

Steven Spielberg is always a promise of quality, and Ready Player One does not disappoint. At first sight, you could say it is the perfect film for gamers and lovers of new technologies. But it is more than that.

The center of the action is the virtual world called OASIS. A fantastic universe, full of hidden secrets and clues left behind from its late creator. The people who discover all of them will change their future forever (or perhaps the future of the whole world).

I was a bit uneasy about the movie when I first heard about it, but it was definitely better than I expected.

The Story

We follow Wade (Tye Sheridan), a teenage boy obsessed with finding out the secrets hiding on OASIS. Wade’s unusual - to say the least - home and extremely poor neighborhood would be enough for a plot, yet it is just a detail throughout the movie. The perfect detail.

Wade is not the only one obsessed with this virtual world, an escape for most people from their terrible reality. At OASIS, they can be who they want to be, how they want to be, and do whatever they want. Freedom is absolute and stands in contrast to the reality of the physical world.

For the viewer, the action is electrifying in both the real and virtual worlds.

Technology and Emotion

Despite the high-tech world that Ready Player One presents, the movie is not all about technology. It’s emotionally profound and makes us care about the characters.

At the end of the story, you may end up questioning yourself about the metaphor it might represent. Is our life not exciting enough? Is Spielberg trying to tell us that we need to beat the online world?

Full of references and childhood memories

Throughout the movie, you are confronted with dozens of 70s and 80s pop culture references. Some of Spielberg’s own creations that will undoubtedly make you smile.

Your kids may not understand or recognize them, but they will be too delighted with the movie anyway.

My favorite reference was to The Shining. Simply perfect.

More than a Game

Peter Bradshaw, in The Guardian, says that the movie shows Virtual Reality as the opium of the masses, and he is right. The background shows us big cities turned into giant trash cans, from where the population needs to run away, even if virtually.

The characters are well constructed; they are deep and enjoyable.

Wade is playing a game. “That’s all?” you might ask. No, but even when it is, we care about him and his fate inside and outside the game.

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