READY PLAYER ONE: Game On

NOTE: All your SPOILERS are belong to us.

"People come to the OASIS for all the things they can do, but they stay for all the things they can be."

- Wade Watts/Parzival (Tye Sheridan), Ready Player One 

Very few people ruled the 1980s like Steven Spielberg. He directed eight films and through his production company Amblin, executive produced sixteen more - those including Gremlins, The Goonies, Innerspace, Young Sherlock Holmes, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and of course, Back to the Future. He also created the television series "Amazing Stories" which helped give rise to storytellers like Brad Bird. Someone that prolific on popular culture could never be forgotten and thanks to the work of a budding screenwriter-turned-author (and back again), it might have actually been the foundation of one of his most thrilling adventures.

Ernest Cline was a fledgling screenwriter whose most famous work had been the 2009 comedy, Fanboys, starring Kristen Bell and Dan Fogler among others. He was not satisfied as the movie was being distributed by future bankrupt monstrosity the Weinstein Company. Wanting to do a movie-style adventure with complete control over his characters, Cline began writing the book "Ready Player One", an ode to the pop culture of the 1980s as well as a hopeful look forward into a future filled with virtual reality havens of escapism. While the book garnered praise from many in the geek community, others were disquieted. "Ready Player One" has often been railed as sexist, manipulative and pandering. A recurring element is the lead character asking if another character portrayed as a woman is actually a woman. Another controversial part of the book was the amount of listing the lead gives to his knowledge of the 1980s. Cline has offered few if any defense to these allegations. He had been mostly busy working to get "Ready Player One" a proper film adaptation. Many of the great filmmakers around today were offered the film - Peter Jackson, Matthew Vaughn, Edgar Wright and Robert Zemeckis among them - and all turned the film down. On a lark, Cline's agent sent the book to the offices of Steven Spielberg just to see if he would turn it down. Spielberg apparently not only did not turn the book down but could not put the book down.

Having recently fallen into the groove of making socially-relevant historical dramas, Spielberg found the book giving him flashbacks of making films back in the 1980s, the ones that were literal blockbusters with fans lining up around the block. He also saw the story as a potential commentary on the youth of today willingly plugging themselves into their various devices as opposed to spending time outside or with friends and family. Suitably inspired, Spielberg shocked Hollywood by announcing Ready Player One as part of his upcoming filmography which then featured the international thriller Bridge of Spies and cutesy-cuddly family film The BFG. He even attended Comic-Con, of which he has made few appearances at, to promote the film to cheering crowds. "It was the most amazing flashback and flash forward I had ever expierenced," he told Comic-Con. Utilizing the performance capture technology of The Adventures of Tintin and The BFG, Spielberg set out to bring the virtual reality world of the OASIS to life. Because of the lengthy time it took for Industrial Light & Magic to fully render and animate the world of Ready Player One, Spielberg found time to go off and film The Post, following the tumultuous election of Donald Trump. Having scratched the familiar historical drama itch, Spielberg was Ready to have fun with audiences again.

In the not-too-distant future of 2045, young Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) finds himself wishing for a world that no longer exists: the seemingly more fun and upbeat time of America in the 1980s. Fortunately, he has a way to access that in the sprawling digital utopia that is the OASIS, created by multi-billionaire genius James Halliday (Academy Award winner Mark Rylance). In the OASIS, even the most unpopular nobody can go anywhere, do anything, be anything. However, Halliday has been dead for several years but before he died, he left behind a message inviting all users of the OASIS on a hunt for an Easter egg he left behind. The first user to find it will inherit Halliday's vast, vast, VAST fortune (vast) as well as full ownership of the OASIS. In the midst of this is the multinational conglomerate known as IOI, headed by the duplicitous Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), which will do anything - legal or illegal - to win the contest. As the hunt for the Egg rages on, the realms of the real and the virtual hang in the balance. Wade and his friends - through their digital avatars - will go on adventures beyond their wildest "pure" imagination.

Ready Player One is one of the most visually-stimulating, jaw-droppingly awesome and incredible hilarious action-packed thrill rides Spielberg has ever brought to the screen. The OASIS sequences, as previously mentioned filmed in performance capture, are proof that Spielberg has become the de-facto champion of the technology, picking up where Zemeckis and Jackson left off. It has all the prowess that James Cameron imbued into Avatar, but with the crowd-pleasing sensibilities of films like Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. All the heroic characters - the High 5 - are likable both in their digital avatars as well as in their real-world selves. Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg, who are both fantastic actors and Spielberg alumni, are well-suited in supporting roles. The standout performance comes from the British actress Olivia Cooke as Samantha/Art3mis, utilizing an American accent, and often brings to mind Lea Thompson's giggly Lorraine Baines from Back to the Future. 

In the book, one of the challenges for Parzival is to step into the world of the 1983 film, WarGames. WarGames is a fine film, one I would definitely recommend; but it is clear that the film held no personal connection to Spielberg himself. However, The Shining did; it is well-documented that Stanley Kubrick was very close friends with Spielberg. In the movie, our heroes burst through the doors of a digital cineplex to find a stunning recreation of the Colorado Lounge in the Overlook Hotel. It is almost as if the filmmakers went back in time to Elstree Studios in 1979 England and simply filmed in the empty sets. Hallmarks of The Shining gradually begin to appear: the Grady twins, the blood coming from the elevator (it usually gets off at the second floor) and last, but not least, the infamous Room 237. It is a testament to Spielberg's command of visual effects, the mind-blowing talent of thousands of animators as well as a loving tribute to a masterful director. 

The greatest joys to get out of Ready Player One are the surprise references in the film. It is amazing to think that Freddy Krueger, Duke Nukem, Harley Quinn, the original RoboCop and Chucky of Child's Play are all in a Steven Spielberg film. And that is barely skimming the surface of what can be seen in the film. I saw this movie in IMAX both opening night and the following night and I can only imagine I have correctly identified just under a third of all what goes on in the background of the movie. While I will most definitely advocate you see this film on the biggest screen possible, the day will come when people like me will go frame-by-frame of this movie on an iPad Zapruder-style to see all the identifying characters.  But the one that captured my heart the most was seeing the DeLorean time machine back in action. Seeing it zoom, jump and hover in the film's first challenge was exhilarating. There is also a very sweet nod to Robert Zemeckis in the film as well that is one element I will not spoil.

I am recommending Ready Player One to anybody I know. Regardless of age, gender, whether they are gamers or whether they love movies or not. It is a genuinely heartfelt adventure that will please almost any crowd you put in front of this thing. It celebrates imagination and fun like few movies made today ever could have. The flaws of the book have been dialed down or even removed from the film. Spielberg has often taken books that were mediocre at worst and made them into legendary films like Jaws and Jurassic Park. I imagine time will be just as kind to Ready Player One.