Ready Player One (2018)

Sometimes it seems blockbusters pride themselves on their banality. Almost as a badge of honour being able to appeal to everyone who can be bothered leaving their brain at the door or for those that never had one in the first place. Movies for people who don't care about movies, who leave content with the last two hours of their life and with no interest in analysation, discussion or appreciation of the medium. Sounds pretty elitist I know, but so be it.

Initially, I lamented having not read the source novel of Ready Player One before I saw this Hollywood adaptation, especially given so many of my peers had and often heaped immense praise upon it; not to mention it was a novel built around subject matter and ideas very close to my heart – video game and popular culture to which I am a sponge. Now having finally seen it - burdened with (some) anticipation yet (plenty of) trepidation going in - I'm now really, really glad I hadn't sat down with the book beforehand. I was disappointed enough as a movie fan, let alone someone hoping for some semblance of a great transition from book to film. I make it a point, as David Cronenberg taught me, to never compare the two, but enough people who do and have read it, assure me they blew it. I can only review it as a stand alone movie however and in the short version, RP1 is an enjoyably banal blockbuster.

In the longer version, to say it's underwhelming is an understatement and to say it's ambition never comes close to reaching it's realisation is obvious, the execution ranging from stunning to just plain lazy. Ultimately it's just a bit of a mess. A blindingly spectacular CGI mess however. A giant canvas print not quite as detailed as it thinks it is – or could be - on closer inspection. I do only lament now having not seen it in IMAX. The opening "races" after a rushed and frustrating introduction to our hero, Wade aka Parzival, the VR world that all dwell in, the "Oasis", and it's creator, Halliday, are jaw dropping and adrenaline pumping. King Kong makes an appearance in a spectacular way, but this was the last real excitement I felt in any of the set pieces, and it wasn't long after that I stopped caring that our hero even reached his goal.

The pop culture nods come in two forms; blink and you'll miss them to others being absorbed into the mainframe of the narrative. I felt a bit of false advertising regarding this because I was expecting not necessarily a lot more, but perhaps that things were a little more utilised or even just shown with more relevance. Perhaps my expectations betrayed me, but seeing Freddy, Jason, the Ninja Turtles or Robocop for 1.5 seconds before disappearing or being obliterated as an avatar does not a reference make. Most were sight gags and fall into the former category mentioned above. My beloved Chucky gets a bit more of a “scene” which was fun. Randomly, Mortal Kombat's Goro gets almost 30 seconds, while the Iron Giant and a confusing Mecha-Godzilla have their moments. Seeing the Delorean blasting through a street race so often made me giddy as hell I will admit. The fabulous/clever Shining homage at the centre was worth the admission alone, but I'm not kidding myself, it would have been VERY difficult to juggle what seems like an endless list of pop culture possibilities and to expect my personal favourite icons and moments chew more screen time than they got is foolish – after all, that's not what RP1 is about. I think.

At first the idea of the general population embracing a time in culture that had no relevance mostly decades before they were even born, was annoying. Why does a kid born post 2020 know how to play an Atari 2600? Why does he consider dressing like Michael Jackson in Thriller for a date? When you realise the Oasis “challenge” that the whole story is based around, is derived purposely from Halliday's mind with all things he grew up loving, ergo his godlike status demanding the (basically) entire population to subscribe to, “the more you know about retro culture the better chance you'll win my game and get my golden ticket, err.. egg”, it makes more sense, but it's still jarring as hell initially. It's all very nifty for a pop culture geek such as myself I suppose, but not explained very well either, on top of the fact that a lot of it felt shoe horned in. Prologue can go a long way and RP1 - the movie - is in dire need of one. The idea of an evil corporation solely existing to garner this knowledge and defeat the challenge is fairly fun too, but despite all this, and a very clunky handling of VR technology and how we interact with it in my opinion, the script feels too by the numbers regardless and could not excite or move me emotionally one iota. A coupe of twists at the end did little to change that.

So regardless of how much the iconic novel expands on mic drop levels of classic 80's imagery, music, discussions about what state John Hughes based his movies in or let's face it; character, plot or narrative development for that matter (shockingly lacking - Parzival/Wade is hardly explored at all), the film needed to be purged of what it could be and blockbuster-ized in order to just exist. Enter Mr. Spielberg. A necessary evil I'm afraid all ye who hold the book on a pedestal and left so disappointed. I refer to that as the “Transformers quandary”.

In 2007, mediocre director/producer Michael Bay delivered a long awaited big screen version of the Hasbro toys that practically every male in my generation grew up playing with and loving, and it was gigantically pedestrian, with warped, modern versions of our inter space robot heroes and a weak as piss script. But you couldn't be mad that it was done that way. It cost 200+ million calms and to reap any sort of payback, it needs to appeal to your grandmother or that guy I mentioned up top who doesn't care about movies. Whilst I wouldn't compare the two films, RP1 does fall into that category but tries to still be hip and geeky enough for the people who embraced the novel. It fails mostly trying to juggle this, but if you want to see that state of the art world inherited by the geeks virtual experience come to life, it's the way it has to be. On that level, it can be enjoyed, no doubt about it, but there is nothing worse than a missed opportunity.

#readyplayerone #review #stevenspielberg #ernestcline #tyesheridan