As a fan of the book by Ernest Cline, we rushed out to see Ready Player One from director Steven Spielberg.
It was our first of his movies at the cinema for some time, whilst he has done fewer blockbusters and gone for more dramatic movies such as Bridge of Spies and The Post as well as family dramas such as War Horse and the BFG; whilst all worth watching for his talent, we have felt we could wait to watch at home but not this one!
The story is set in the year 2045 and the world is a much harsher place, with many turning to the VR World of the OASIS to live in a better world, created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance) with friend Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg)
In the VR world of OASIS you can be anyone you want to be, so many choose to enter and switch off from the world outside, one of these is Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who outside of it, lives in a modern-day slum with his mum and her abusive partner.
He has some friends, but they are mainly people he has met in the OASIS through his avatar alter-ego Parzival, his best friend is Aech (Lena Waithe) and has a crush on Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) but their world along with Sho (Philip Zhao) & Daito (Win Morisaki) is about to change forever, when Halliday reveals after his death, he has hidden 3 keys within the OASIS and whoever finds them can take control of the OASIS for their own desire.
After a thrilling first car chase to find the key which Wade wins, it comes clear the 5 VR friends must form the high five to stop the IOI led by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) a bitter former intern of Halliday and Morrow who wants to run the OASIS for extreme financial gain, which contradicts what his 2 former employers wanted for it, who wanted it available to all.
With unlimited funding and workers as players, the huge IOI team seem certain to be able to do the research to find the clues that will get them the remaining keys and control of the OASIS. As well as having money to fund trained assassins like Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen) & I-Rok (T.J. Miller) who has ways of helping them cheat within the OASIS, Sorrento will stop at nothing to make sure no one else wins!
Who will win this chase to find the 3 keys and take control of the OASIS, we suggest you see this brilliant adaption to find out! The film itself is a visual spectacle and with you being able to have any avatar within the OASIS there are 100’s of film and computer game references to find with players being anything from Ninja Turtles to Chucky from Childs Play. We would probably want to be Disney’s Stitch for example!
This can also be seen with the first car race challenge, where people drive everything from bikes from Tron to the Delorean of Back to the Future. We would want to drive Herbie =)
Fans of the book will be happy with this adaptation which Cline himself worked on, so it is easier to accept the addition of characters like Zandor to help the story flow. The film is also aided by a great score from Alan Silvestri.
Our only real faults with the film are that some of the film references from the book are removed due to licensing, such as Wade’s Delorean is not Ghostbusters branded but that is minor.
A lot of the references are also ‘blink and you will miss them’ so we can’t wait to see this film again at home, where we can stop and pause but this a great family-friendly blockbuster that we highly recommend.
See the trailer at the film website here
Buy the book at Amazon here:
Read our review of the book here:
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