Reviewed By: Jay Andrews-Tracy
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
Stephen Spielberg has once again created a masterpiece with the movie Ready Player One, based on the book written by Ernest Cline. I have never read the book so I cannot compare the movie to the book. There is a not so rich guy that lives with his aunt, named Wade Parzival (Tye Sheridan), who lives in the near-future of 2045, which is on the verge of chaos and corruption. He lives in a place called the Stacks, where everyone finds an escape and peace in a virtual reality simulation called ‘The Oasis’.
The movie starts out with the creator of a virtual reality game called The Oasis, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), has died. After his death the users of The Oasis logged in and the system gives a message to them, and tells them that there is an ‘Easter egg’. If they can find this Egg, the will obtain total control of the game, and win an insane amount of money.
There are a couple of different clues in the movie that lead to the ‘keys’ which gives Wade more hints to get to the end of the hunt. With a mighty team effort, they eventually solve the puzzle, and win the prize. We do find out more about the creator in the movie, as the movie develops. The creator’s story is part of the main plot.
There are many different nostalgic Easter eggs in the movie such as the car that Wade drives, which is a Delorean that has a hint of Knight Rider (K.I.T.T.) in the front of it. There are other things you will recognize such as King Kong, and an ancient Atari video game system is even used throughout the movie.
The movie has a real nice 80s soundtrack to it. A lot of songs people will recognize like Van Halen, Tears for Fears, Blondie, and so much more! The musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri who composed other great movies like Back To The Future, and Who framed Roger Rabbit, which you will recognize some of Back to the Future melody throughout the movie.
There are so many different references from other movies that I will not mention where they are in the movie, but keep your eye out for Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Iron Giant is also referenced in the movie in Aech’s (played by Lena Waithe) hideout.
The music is what keeps you going throughout the movie, along with the eye-popping special effects in the virtual reality world. The action sequences are pretty intense, and the plot is pretty good too. The movie is very well written, if there was a sequel I would definitely go out of my way to watch it. I knew from the watching the trailer that I would enjoy this movie a lot, and that doesn’t happen with me that often.
Opening weekend the movie made $41,764,050 and gross it has made $115,877,946. I am looking forward to reading the book to see how it compares to the movie. I think that this was a brilliant movie and should end up with its own television series. My favorite parts of the movie were when there was a movie reference to Gundam and Chucky! I think if you want to watch this movie and shouldn’t wait for it on to come out on DVD, I think you should give it a chance in the theater!