It's time to level up and dive into Steven Spielberg's visually breathtaking pop culture Easter egg hunt 'Ready Player One'! Is this movie worth playing? Somewhat. It's fun.

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2018)

Set in the world of 2045, this Warner Bros film based off, author Ernest Cline's 2011's bestseller YA novel of the same name; tells the story of Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) on his dangerous quest to find one of the three hidden keys that brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance) has buried in his expansive virtual reality universe; 'the OASIS', the discovery of which will lead the winner to inherit the game creator's fortune & control of his company. Without spoiling the movie, too much, there are not a lot of filmmakers out there that could had adapted this book into film. None of them has the vast assemble of contacts throughout Hollywood, in order to convince other studios to lend out their IPS (intellectual property) for the piece, as Steven Spielberg has. He also knows how to bring out the best performances both live action and though, character animations with nearly everything being spot on, strong. He did that before in 1988's 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. Not only that, but the book film neatly encapsulates Spielberg's biggest strengths, by taking the world's obsession with the unstoppable push of CGI technology, layered with clever inside jokes & nostalgia driven- pop cultural references and combine them up into a sci fi genre that can work, both as a mystery & adventure with its treasure hunting premise and you got yourself, nearly a match made in heaven without it turning into controversial vanity project. However, there were somethings in this adaptation that could had done a little bit better, such as adjusting the exposition narrative into more of a 'show don't tell' type story. All the slog info dump in the beginning, still felt like reading a book, than a movie. Another thing, unlike the book, the film is so enamored with the world of Oasis that it doesn't spend as much time fleshing out the real-world of 2045. Where is all the mentions of environmental destruction, overpopulation, and economic meltdown from the book? Isn't it weird to see sequences outside the 'stacks', with Columbus, OH still looking pretty well kept for a city that supposed to be, in the brick of collapse. Also, I never got the idea that the world is horrible, if everybody is able to connect to the 'OASIS'. The background visuals for this film seem underdeveloped, much like most the character's backstories, besides Halliday. There's not a lot of remarkable amount of depth & development with them. Wade honestly felt like such a self-insert/wish fulfilment type character. He has literally little flaws here, but the will to fall in love. At least, in the original, he had learn to overcome greed, devastation and gluttony. In the film, his obsession with the 'OASIS' isn't healthy, as his knowledge of the creator seen too all-consuming and come across, as just unrealistic. Tye's character wasn't really that interesting, despite his acting being alright. Supporting characters like Art3mis AKA Samantha Cooke (Olivia Cooke) had potential to be a great character with her cool rebellion backstory, as well. Yet, in the end, she was ultimately reduced to a love interest. It was a bit disappointing. Nothing in the film is particularly emotional. I expected more of a moral message with their relationship. Still Olivia Cooke did alright job. The same can be said, with the others side-performers. I just wish, their emotional scenes weren't cut out of the film. Scenes like where a character is toss out of a building and another character family member having to hide her race through an avatar were very powerful in the book. Not having it, here, was a big mistake. Another deviate from the novel, I hate, was having everybody in one place. Isn't 'OASIS' supposed to worldwide network?! Where is the scenes all over the world? The lack of scope come across as so underwhelming. As for the action scenes. Some segments like the Manhattan Sky-line car race & the climactic battle scenes are visually inducing seizure due to over sensory. While others, like virtual version of 1980's Stanley Kubrick's horror movie, 'The Shining' are brilliantly staged. Either way, all the action scenes are lot better than the book. The movie takes away the numerous trials to unlock multiple gates with keys: instead focusing on winning the key as the challenge. It made the plot move faster, while, keeping the mystery, complex, and worth trying to solve. However, I didn't like how characters would magically whip some convenient Deus Ex Machina like obscure unexplained knowledge or unestablished weapons in their arsenal. Look, as much as I dig the premise of a treasure hunt inside a gigantic immersive online environment, very much; the idea of the people of 2045, being fixated on cultural references, over 50 years ago is bit jarring. Online culture just doesn't work that way. People like novelty. The film should had create more recent fictional in-universe pop-culture references to work with. You know, works from 2020-2045. After all, nostalgia can only go so far, before people forget or become unaware, of past works. A good example is how you don't see many silent era film stars as internet memes, these days. It's just unlikely going to happen. The movie push its pop-culture references too hard to the point that it reach insanity & oversaturated. It come across obnoxious, too reminiscence and annoying at times. It's hard to keep up. Despite that, the movie the movie is cheeky & witty enough, on its own to keep viewers, interested. However, some of the jokes might fall flat, because how dated, they quickly can become. At least, the movie doesn't cringe-worthy creepy jokes about masturbating & stalking like the book has. As for the pacing. The film is better, but both share the choppy rushed ending. Regardless of that, this movie is still worth plugging into, just for the nostalgia trip factor, even if the book both celebrates and critiques online culture, better. It's a film, still worth checking out.