Ready Player One takes place in 2045. Life is miserable for most people. To escape their wretched existences, they log into a virtual world called the OASIS. Created by socially awkward genius James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the OASIS allows anyone to become whoever or whatever they want to be. Just before Halliday dies, he channels Willy Wonka and sets up a contest to find 3 keys that lead to an Easter Egg. The first person to find the egg inherits Halliday’s fortune and gains control of the OASIS. Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), avatars of real-world Wade and Samantha, are determined to find the egg and keep the OASIS out of the clutches of evil business executive Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who wants to take control and put up advertisements. Yeah, that’s the existential evil the inhabitants of the OASIS are facing. Annoying adds.

If you unplug your brain and don’t think about it, Ready Player One is another soulless CGI-heavy spectacle. We’ve seen a lot of them these past few years. The characters are poorly developed, the story is thin, and the whole thing is just an excuse to cram as many pop culture references as possible into the 140-minute runtime. This film exists to give middle-aged nerds an opportunity to squeal with delight at their ability to spot call-outs to their lost youth. It very quickly crosses the line and becomes downright patronizing. Plenty of movies are all style and no substance, but I had hoped for more from a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Continue reading →