Ready Player One - Review

As of right now, this is the best film of the year! Also, it is the second year in a row where I feel like a film was released that was so fun and spoke to me on a deep, personal level. Last year in 2017, that film was Baby Driver. In 2018, that film was Ready Player One. A pure love letter to children of the 80's or anyone who loves 80's culture and video gamers alike. Everywhere you turn there is a reference to a video game or a movie or a kickass 80's song is playing in the background. Being who I am, I loved every second of it. However, when you make a movie like this you have to be very careful for a couple of reasons. One, when you put this much nostalgic material into your movie, you risk alienating an audience that may not necessarily understand all the references or even play video games. Two, if you create a section of your movie like the Oasis and have it be extremely awesome, you risk having the parts in the real world becoming dull and the audience wanting to get those scenes over with. Three, similar to the last point, you risk the audience solely wanting to see more of the Oasis and not caring about the characters or the actual plot of the movie. I saw this movie with my girlfriend who enjoys video games but isn't a hardcore gamer, my aunt, who is a big lover of everything 80's, and my uncle who likes 80's culture but doesn't really play video games at all. They all walked out completely satisfied. That right there tells me that, although a small sample size, you don't necessarily have to be a gigantic video game nerd and lover of 80's culture to enjoy this movie. People will enjoy this movie because it's entertaining and it sucks you into it's world. Something I really applaud the art form of cinema for being able to do. Make the viewer escape into another world. That is the entire plot to this movie. Life sucks in 2045, but there is a virtual reality world called the Oasis and it allows players to be anyone and anything they want and do anything. And while people getting sucked into a video game is nothing new (Tron), we have never seen it done to this scale before. In there you will find references to so many movies and so many video games and it allows the filmmakers to really expand their imagination. One of the first action scenes is a giant death race that is almost unbeatable and it was absolutely exhilarating! Cars are flying left, right and centre, windy roads with obstacles and jumps and of course, wrecking balls swinging at all the vehicles and of course, a giant dinosaur and King Kong trying to destroy all players. Immediately I knew that I was going to love this movie. Add on top of that a trip into a certain movie which I won't spoil, a retro dance lounge and an all-out war between every video game character ever on the side of a mountain. It's just jam-packed with awesome visuals and a ton of fun. And while I'll admit that the characters are pretty generic and aren't necessarily interesting, they serve the story well and do you end up caring for them. I also couldn't help but notice that the evil corporation trying to take over the Oasis is basically Electronic Arts or EA. They see it as a business model whereas the gamers see it as a way to have fun, explore and find your identity as a human being and escape the real world for a bit. And while the movie clearly states that the Oasis is amazing for all the things you can do and be, it will never be reality. Have fun by escaping, but never forget to come back. This movie was amazing! It does everything a movie should do, transport you to another world.