![]() ![]() Watching that character fumble and fail over things I’ve been aware of my entire life was a delight, and it was even better when it flipped that knowledge on me, too. It takes an iconic movie setting you’re almost definitely familiar with and puts a character who’s never seen it at all right in the middle of it. Without spoiling anything, there’s a single horror-based sequence alone that sells the movie brilliantly. Environments twist and shift around characters with careful thought put into camera placement, and every part of the Oasis that you need to understand for story purposes (like inventories, or what happens when players ‘die’) is clearly and effectively communicated – so much so that the Oasis feels like a fully-realized character of its own. It plays with scale, movement, gravity, and time seamlessly Spielberg uses the full extent of the unmatched creativity only available in a largely animated movie. ![]() ![]() Including things like explosive car chases and enormous shootouts, some of Ready Player One’s big action moments already seem unforgettable, and they’re some of the best excuses to go crazy with visual effects that I’ve seen. When it comes to the Oasis, though, character animations and voice acting are spot on, only hurt by some occasionally muddled audio mixing that causes some lines to get lost in the fantastic, nostalgia-inducing score. Performances are strong across the board, with the exception of a couple of awkward emotional close-ups on Sheridan, and Hannah John-Kamen (who plays F’Nale Zandor and does Sorrento’s dirty work) being so overly stiff that she seems more like a robot than a human. Wade’s knowledge of Halliday is his biggest asset in finding the keys, and this leads to Halliday becoming one of the most interesting characters in Ready Player One, even if he’s already dead. The bad guys, led by Noal Sorrento (played wonderfully by Ben Mendelsohn) are part of a competing tech company and are out to control the Oasis for the money, while Wade, at least initially, is simply in it for the love of the game and his admiration for Halliday. It’s an appealing challenge, set in a VR world that feels like it absolutely could be real in a decade or three.įor Wade and the corporate villains pursuing him, ‘winning’ the hunt for the Easter Egg is a fairly basic goal that could have been fleshed out with some much more interesting commentary (especially by giving more than a mention to a ‘resistance’ fighting for freedom in the Oasis), but the fast-paced action keeps it exciting regardless. VR-obsessed humans in the real world are on the hunt for the Egg, and should they find it they’d be granted control of the Oasis and a significant amount of riches. Taking place half in Columbus, Ohio and half in a virtual playground known as the Oasis, Ready Player One follows the story of Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan) as he searches for an Easter egg hidden by the Oasis’ creator, James Halliday (played by Mark Rylance). It’s an action film first, both in the relatively bland real world and in the colorful, over-the-top virtual one, and carries Steven Spielberg’s affinity for thoughtful timing and some genuinely thrilling sequences. Though its pop culture Easter egg-filled trailers might have suggested otherwise, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the beloved sci-fi novel Ready Player One is far more than just a reference-fest. ![]()
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