Weekly Film: Ready Player One

Ready Player One

Ready Player One is a science fiction film that was directed and produced by Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jurassic Park) and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. It is based on a highly successful book written in 2011 by American author which became a New York Times bestseller and won multiple awards. It is set in a near future in the year 2045. The film contains themes of escapism due to all the characters choosing to spend most of their time in a virtual-reality landscape rather than the real world.

The film follows Wade Watts, who is portrayed by Tye Sheridan (X-Men Apocalypse), an avid gamer who spends the majority of his time in the OASIS, a virtual world in which players can be whoever they want, whenever they want. When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance, The BFG), dies he leaves behind a hidden Easter egg that players have to find in order to inherit his company. This leads Wade's avatar Perzival and his clan to go through 3 different challenges to unlock keys which then open a huge chest whilst being pursued by evil rival company IOI run by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn).

 The film was written in a way that I could truly believe that this is what the world could become in the next few decades- submerged in technology. It also contained enough pop-culture references to last a lifetime. These included reference to video-games old and new, films and music (mostly from the 80s). Naming them all could take all day and I'm sure I could spot more when watching it a second time. Some of them are blatant such as Perzival's main source of transportation being the Delorean from back to the future, whilst others are blink or you'll miss them cameos such as Batman and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Spielberg said that he didn't want to use his a large amount of his own characters to avoid being accused of vanity.  

 The visual effects in this film stand out from the rest. The motion capture is outstanding and unlike many films before it. Sheridan said "We shot the first six-eight weeks in mo-cap. Everything that happens in The OASIS is all shot in motion-capture". This type of film could only be made by someone who is as high up in the Hollywood industry as Spielberg is. From the films huge budget to all the different people that he had to go to in order to get permission to use licensed characters. It is clear that a lot of work went into the production of this film.

 Ready Player One premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2018, was theatrically released in the United States on March 29, 2018, in 2D, Real D 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D. It was intended to be released on 15th December 2017 but was pushed back to avoid clashing with Star Wars Episode VIII. Whether intentional or not,it is funny that the film is aout finding a hidden easter egg and it released on Easter weekend. The budget for the film was $175million(US) and so far it has made $391million(US) currently making it the 4th highest grossing film of 2018 so far. The film had a good reception earning 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.9/10 on IMDB.

 Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would definitely recommend it to someone who likes video-games or has a knowledge of pop-culture from the last 30 years. I always enjoy times when I see characters that I grew up with all collaborate in the same place (mainly because I live for nostalgia) and Ready Player One is no exception. What I enjoy about this film is that the references do not seem forced and the film does not rely on them to create cheap humour. And I think that is the best part of the movie. It is still its own story with its own characters that just happen to live in a world with all of these.

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