Ready Player One is the new Steven Spielberg directed sci-fi film based on the pop-culture riddled novel from a few years ago. I read the book and went into the movie expecting certain changes of plot elements that a movie probably couldn’t represent well. And I understood those changes when they came… folk who don’t know the book won’t know the difference and those who demand slavish devotion will be pissed. Those who don’t get the myriad of pop-culture references may be somewhat lost at times.
Set in Columbus, OH in 2045, the film is about a shared virtual reality world where most of the population spend their times since the world is kind of crap. The creator of this world has died and has hidden three keys that, if you find, you gain his fortune and full control of the system (and, by extension, the future). Our Hero and his friends must join together to ensure the evil corporation doesn’t win…. because they will monetize and corporatize the system. Hell is a loss of Net Neutrality and aggressive pop-up ads.
The film (though moreso the book) is steeped in pop culture nostalgia. The film borrows heavily from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today (where the books mainly focused on the 80s). A lot of this is background detail though there are specific plot points and characters that it would help to recognize. It doesn’t get too geeky (not compared to the book) though there are some quick key sequences or moments that do go uber-geeky. Probably not so much that the clueless won’t be too confused.
This is not one Spielberg’s best films but it’s a pretty good film. I didn’t love it and I left the theater wondering why it wasn’t better. It’s very possible – very likely – that I’ll think it a better movie if I see it again (since I’ll be judging the changes from the book less). That said, I still think Spielberg didn’t have his full heart in the movie. I don’t think this he truly understand the culture he’s filming. The writers do but I don’t think Spielberg connects as well. Which, by extension, means it’s not quite as schmaltzy as some of his flicks. Which is good, in my book.
Not that there’s no humanity in the movie. There’s a decent low-key romance that gets a few minutes to flower (very quickly) and this works both with the real humans as well as their virtual avatars. Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cook (the male and female leads) are watchable and have nice chemistry. Don’t be fooled though… this is largely an action/adventure film with minimal character depth.
From the perspective of a book adaptation, they did make some smart changes and some changes to speed up the pace… and they dial down the extreme geekery. For example, the first challenge is an auto race where, in the book, it was locating and then venturing into the 1978 Dungeons and Dragons module The Tomb Of Horrors which ends in challenging the lich king to the video game Joust. Or another challenge that was set IN the film Wargames… I was pleased a similar scene exists… but it’s a bit more of Spielberg’s nostalgia. It’s a REALLY cool scene full of iconic imagery but it’s much less geeky than what was in the book.
But yeah, I overall liked the film. It’s good. It’s fine. It’s not amazing and it lacks a certain charm or magic. A certain amount of heart and connection to the gamer culture on display. The action scenes are good and sometimes great or at least really cool. I don’t mind most of the changes from the book… a proper version of the book in detail would require a tv show. So, as a film adaptation, it works well enough. I liked it. I think most people would if they give it a shot and aren’t scared off by the mass geek pop culture explosion.
Score: 82