Ready Player One (2018)

I almost used my free birthday ticket to see Ready Player One but then I saw A Quiet Place was on and went with it instead. I'm glad I made that choice because Spielberg's latest film was quite a disappointment. 

In the year 2045, much of humanity escape the harsh reality and desolation of the real world in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where anyone can go anywhere, do anything and be anyone. When its creator, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all the users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder the full ownership of the OASIS. An orphaned teenager, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), finds the first clue and, with the help of some virtual friends, he tries to complete the game before a large company of virtual reality hardware run by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) do so.

I haven't read Ernest Cline's novel upon which the film is based on --I'm pretty sure though it's a faithful adaptation since Cline co-wrote the script-- but the film's plot is paper-thin, predictable and there are plot holes and convenient moments everywhere. I was okay, kinda, with all the people involved in the action being from the same area of the real world despite the fact that people play from all over the world, after all, every single time something bad happens in a movie, it happens in the US. But I was not okay with the characters immediately recognizing each other in the real world. Sorrento found out who Wade was in real life because he was stupid enough to say his real name in the OASIS and then tracked him down; the others, they just met and know who they are.

The characters aren't that better than the plot. I didn't see a lot of development here neither. There are a lot of one-dimensional and shallow characters, either defined as good or evil. I couldn't find a reason to care for the hero of the story nor for his friends, nor did I have a reason to root for Wade instead of Sorrento. Actually, I would have loved to see Sorrento triumph because he's a pretty good villain, way too good for this film. And the credits entirely go to Ben Mendehlson as the character is poorly written, just like the rest of them.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Ultimately, the problem with Ready Player One is that the filmmakers cared more about throwing pop culture references everywhere than writing a solid script. I liked the references that I got and the nostalgic soundtrack is pretty awesome, but I'd take a better script over those any day.

Then there are the visual effects. Being half of the story set in a virtual world, the film looks a lot like a video game, but not a visually appealing video game, but an ugly, cheap video game. With the kind of technology involved in creating a virtual world like that, I think they'd work on graphics a little bit more. Also, I found the virtual world action sequences pretty bland.