Ready Player One Review

Thefanboyseo.com goes retro for this Ready Player One review. It stars Tye Sheridan and Ben Mendelsohn and directed by Steven Spielberg. Opens March 31 from Warner Bros. Pictures.

*This was written by my wife who attended the press screening last thursday night*

This movie is based on the novel of the same title by Ernest Cline. It follows the story of Wade Watts, a young man from “The Stacks” who’s obssessed with everything 80s as he looks to solve the riddle left by deceased industrialist James Haliday. As he progresses through the Oasis, a VR world where you be anyone and do anything you want. As he deals with all sorts of dangers both online and in the real world, Wade finds alliance with fellow Gunthers like Aech, Artemis, Shoto and Daito.

So now that we’ve taken care of the preliminaries for this Ready Player One review, its time to talk about the good stuff and the bad stuff.

The cast range from really good in the case of Sheridan and Mendelsohn. I do have more affinity for Sheridan who was awesome in “Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” and “X-Men: Apocalypse”.

The story’s typical and a bit weak, same as the novel. You can only do.so much. But while it’s typical its the sheer amount of visual nuggets that makes it a great movie for me.

I loved those big battles at the and its filled with nice surprises. I wasn’t entirely sure how they managed to cram all of them in one film. You got Batman, Superman references, Chucky the Killer Doll and even a Gundam, which we’ve already seen in the trailers.

Viewed in IMAX, the whole experience is worth the admission price. But it’s still pretty great even in regular 2D.

Every scene, every moment has something that’s going to get your attention. It easily beats out Wreck-it Ralph in terms of easter eggs.

Now for the sad part. There were some parts from the novel that never made it to the Spielberg movie. Macross never made an appearance, Ultraman doesn’t make the cut. There were also some scenes that was either smushed together like that time Wade goes to the city and does all sorts of crazy stuff. It was nuanced at best but help flesh out the character of Wade Watts. Here, this gets spun differently. I guess, it’ll only hurt the purist though.

The movie isn’t “nakakapagod” as well when it comes to visuals. Every scene with easter egg actually helps reinvigorate the movie in general.

If you’re a fan of movies and video games and all things pop-culture then I can definitely recommend Ready Player One.

10/10

Special thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures. Credits also to WB PH for the photos