By Nadia Ranaputri
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Hannah John-Kamen, Win Morisaki, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg.
Adapted from Ernest Cline's pop culture galore novel, Ready Player One follows in the footsteps of a classic sci-fi adventure filled with Easter Eggs, fantasy quests, and one big wondrous adventure.
Ready Player One takes place in the year 2045, where nearly all of the human population spend the majority of their time in the OASIS, a virtual reality world created by James Halliday; where anyone could be anything. They could create their own avatars, they could compete for virtual wealth and explore through multiple worlds such as the likes of Planet Doom or a casino the size of a planet. The OASIS is limitless, functioning as a form of escapism from the dystopian reality that humanity has chosen to adapt and survive in rather than improve it.
The film begins in the midst of an all out virtual quest, announced by Halliday before his passing, to discover three keys in order to unlock the final Easter Egg that would grant the player full control of the OASIS. The quest gained popularity among players who are willing to obtain the ultimate prize, but as the years went by, the number of players searching for the three keys has decreased, except for Wade Watts, a player from Ohio who goes by the name Parzival in the OASIS and is one of the players who are still in search of Halliday's three keys. His involvement in the quest gains him not only popularity, but the attention of the IOI (Innovative Online Industries); a company dead-set on obtaining the OASIS to their full control.
If you just want to be swept in one hell of an adventurous ride, then you're in for a treat, because Ready Player One delivers exactly that. The story is just fast-paced, but it's the right amount of fast paced. It immediately sucks you right in to the world of the OASIS and the many things that it has to offer. The film is very much revolved around the hunt for Halliday's Easter Egg, and it just so happens that one of the players looking for it is none other than our protagonist. What the film does that makes the film so enticing is how they make the hunt both a visual treat and an adventurous treat. I mean, there's a car race sequence with King Kong smashing cars and roads from every angle, and a trivia maze that centres around The Shining's infamous Overlook Hotel, and all these are coordinated by the one and only Steven Spielberg. It's the perfect recipe for a splendidly good time.
Of course, it's a film that relies a little heavily on nostalgia, given the astounding amount of familiar Easter Eggs from the likes of Back to the Future and The Iron Giant, but the best was definitely a sequence revolving around Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The character of James Halliday has created a pop-culture wonderland, and some Easter Egg-filled quest that perhaps only a director like Spielberg could bring to life with such authenticity and wonder, but at the same time, using the right amount of nostalgia and turn it into a celebration of its influence on the people who resonate with these nostalgic elements. These Easter Eggs are what makes Ready Player One, well, Ready Player One. The whole pop culture bonanza is part of the experience. No, you don't have to be up to date with some of the pop culture references embedded in this film, you don't have to try and find a pop culture reference that you know in order to have a good time, because you're already too busy having fun anyways.
Ready Player One's most strongest points lies within its world building of the OASIS. The OASIS is the first bit of information that we delve into the moment the film begins. Not Wade Watts, not the suburban 2045 Ohio where he resides, but the OASIS. The OASIS began as nothing more than a form of escapism, and functions as nothing more than good fun. It's the stuff that happens in the OASIS that makes the film worth watching. The OASIS is made of more than hundreds of different worlds and players masking in alternate identities. But there's a message to this virtual reality galore. The OASIS is exciting and vibrant, whilst the real world is nothing compared to what the OASIS has to offer. Technology becomes both an ally and an adversary to humanity. The OASIS is used as an escape to reality, but how much are humans willing to accept their own reality? The film proposes this kind of concept, balancing the excitement of the OASIS to the harsh reality outside of it.
There is however, some downside to it. Take away the Easter Eggs, and the OASIS, and you've got the players themselves, one of them being Wade Watts. Some aspects of their characterisation feel as if it's lacking something, as if the parts that are meant to be the more grounded and human parts are quickly dismissed in favor of returning its focus to the OASIS and Halliday's Quest; particularly around Tye Sheridan's Wade Watts and Olivia Cooke's Samantha. Despite the great performances from all the actors respectively, there's something odd about how in some ways, the virtual reality counterpart of the players, Wade in particular, have a better setup than their actual human counterparts who are meant to serve as the human elements that ground the film's virtual bonanza. Together though, these ragtag group of players (one of them being Wade's Parzival and Samantha Cook's Art3mis) are a force to be reckoned with, even when their human counterparts are together in the real world.
Ironically, the subplot revolving around James Halliday and his best friend/OASIS co-creator Ogden Morrow that plays like The Social Network and Steve Jobs all mashed together; is the human element that actually worked best, creating something wholly real over the artificial. The film explores the already passed Halliday throughout the course of Wade's journey, yet it's Halliday himself by the end of the day who becomes more of a fully realised character than the protagonist.
In the end though, there is a heart to these players, and there's a particular scene that really hit me, one that reminded the audience that the avatars and the characters we see in the OASIS are just mere human players searching for a place to escape, that they're not looking for a big loaded profit for their own selfishness or a chance to take over the world; they just want a chance to earn something greater than themselves that's limited by reality, but could be achieved through the OASIS. Ready Player One is in a way, an homage to a classic 80's adventure for the modern generation, filled with every nostalgic Easter Egg imaginable, but centered around it are the human elements that ground the film, despite some lacking; that takes you back for a second and remind you that the real world is right next door.
Stars: 4/5
Trailer
 |
| Image source: Variety |
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Hannah John-Kamen, Win Morisaki, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg.
Adapted from Ernest Cline's pop culture galore novel, Ready Player One follows in the footsteps of a classic sci-fi adventure filled with Easter Eggs, fantasy quests, and one big wondrous adventure.
Ready Player One takes place in the year 2045, where nearly all of the human population spend the majority of their time in the OASIS, a virtual reality world created by James Halliday; where anyone could be anything. They could create their own avatars, they could compete for virtual wealth and explore through multiple worlds such as the likes of Planet Doom or a casino the size of a planet. The OASIS is limitless, functioning as a form of escapism from the dystopian reality that humanity has chosen to adapt and survive in rather than improve it.
The film begins in the midst of an all out virtual quest, announced by Halliday before his passing, to discover three keys in order to unlock the final Easter Egg that would grant the player full control of the OASIS. The quest gained popularity among players who are willing to obtain the ultimate prize, but as the years went by, the number of players searching for the three keys has decreased, except for Wade Watts, a player from Ohio who goes by the name Parzival in the OASIS and is one of the players who are still in search of Halliday's three keys. His involvement in the quest gains him not only popularity, but the attention of the IOI (Innovative Online Industries); a company dead-set on obtaining the OASIS to their full control.
If you just want to be swept in one hell of an adventurous ride, then you're in for a treat, because Ready Player One delivers exactly that. The story is just fast-paced, but it's the right amount of fast paced. It immediately sucks you right in to the world of the OASIS and the many things that it has to offer. The film is very much revolved around the hunt for Halliday's Easter Egg, and it just so happens that one of the players looking for it is none other than our protagonist. What the film does that makes the film so enticing is how they make the hunt both a visual treat and an adventurous treat. I mean, there's a car race sequence with King Kong smashing cars and roads from every angle, and a trivia maze that centres around The Shining's infamous Overlook Hotel, and all these are coordinated by the one and only Steven Spielberg. It's the perfect recipe for a splendidly good time.
 |
| Image source: Collider and Warner Bros. |
Of course, it's a film that relies a little heavily on nostalgia, given the astounding amount of familiar Easter Eggs from the likes of Back to the Future and The Iron Giant, but the best was definitely a sequence revolving around Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The character of James Halliday has created a pop-culture wonderland, and some Easter Egg-filled quest that perhaps only a director like Spielberg could bring to life with such authenticity and wonder, but at the same time, using the right amount of nostalgia and turn it into a celebration of its influence on the people who resonate with these nostalgic elements. These Easter Eggs are what makes Ready Player One, well, Ready Player One. The whole pop culture bonanza is part of the experience. No, you don't have to be up to date with some of the pop culture references embedded in this film, you don't have to try and find a pop culture reference that you know in order to have a good time, because you're already too busy having fun anyways.
Ready Player One's most strongest points lies within its world building of the OASIS. The OASIS is the first bit of information that we delve into the moment the film begins. Not Wade Watts, not the suburban 2045 Ohio where he resides, but the OASIS. The OASIS began as nothing more than a form of escapism, and functions as nothing more than good fun. It's the stuff that happens in the OASIS that makes the film worth watching. The OASIS is made of more than hundreds of different worlds and players masking in alternate identities. But there's a message to this virtual reality galore. The OASIS is exciting and vibrant, whilst the real world is nothing compared to what the OASIS has to offer. Technology becomes both an ally and an adversary to humanity. The OASIS is used as an escape to reality, but how much are humans willing to accept their own reality? The film proposes this kind of concept, balancing the excitement of the OASIS to the harsh reality outside of it.
There is however, some downside to it. Take away the Easter Eggs, and the OASIS, and you've got the players themselves, one of them being Wade Watts. Some aspects of their characterisation feel as if it's lacking something, as if the parts that are meant to be the more grounded and human parts are quickly dismissed in favor of returning its focus to the OASIS and Halliday's Quest; particularly around Tye Sheridan's Wade Watts and Olivia Cooke's Samantha. Despite the great performances from all the actors respectively, there's something odd about how in some ways, the virtual reality counterpart of the players, Wade in particular, have a better setup than their actual human counterparts who are meant to serve as the human elements that ground the film's virtual bonanza. Together though, these ragtag group of players (one of them being Wade's Parzival and Samantha Cook's Art3mis) are a force to be reckoned with, even when their human counterparts are together in the real world.
 |
| Image source: Collider and Warner Bros. |
Ironically, the subplot revolving around James Halliday and his best friend/OASIS co-creator Ogden Morrow that plays like The Social Network and Steve Jobs all mashed together; is the human element that actually worked best, creating something wholly real over the artificial. The film explores the already passed Halliday throughout the course of Wade's journey, yet it's Halliday himself by the end of the day who becomes more of a fully realised character than the protagonist.
In the end though, there is a heart to these players, and there's a particular scene that really hit me, one that reminded the audience that the avatars and the characters we see in the OASIS are just mere human players searching for a place to escape, that they're not looking for a big loaded profit for their own selfishness or a chance to take over the world; they just want a chance to earn something greater than themselves that's limited by reality, but could be achieved through the OASIS. Ready Player One is in a way, an homage to a classic 80's adventure for the modern generation, filled with every nostalgic Easter Egg imaginable, but centered around it are the human elements that ground the film, despite some lacking; that takes you back for a second and remind you that the real world is right next door.
Stars: 4/5
Trailer
 - Review){kind=link}