Absolutely Amazing

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2019)

I was first made aware of this movie in my AP English Literature class. We were allowed to vote on a movie to watch as a class which we would then analyze and write a movie review for. Of all the possible films we were allowed to vote on, this was the film that I didn't even think about choosing. Ready Player One didn't seem like a movie I would like at all. I only knew it had something to do with video games which wasn't something I enjoyed enough to watch a 2 hour long movie about it. Regardless of my vote, Ready Player One won the vote, and we watched the movie over the span of 3 classes. I'll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. Ready Player One truly was a blast. It was good enough where I went and rewatched the movie by myself at home.
I won't spoil the movie for you but I will tell you that it was so fun to watch. It is full of surprises. It's a movie full of nostalgia. It makes references to about every other film, television show, video game, soda and musical fad of the past four decades. Some examples are Back to the Future, Batman, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Duran Duran, Halo, Tab, Star Wars, Van Halen, Akira, Mortal Kombat, The A-Team, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Bee Gees, The Lord of the Rings, Nightmare on Elm Street, Michael Jackson, Atari... the list goes on and on. Even though I am a Gen-Z kid, I understood most of the references made, and it was so fun and surprising to see. This movie is fun for people of all ages.
The movie is set in 2045 in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is the world's fastest-growing city/wasteland. It honestly doesn't seem very appealing, literally living on top of each other in slums composed of rusted RVs. The majority of the population have taken the next logical step of video gaming and virtual reality and retreated into their own headsets to escape their sad reality, living out their lives primarily as avatars within the fanciful landscapes of "The Oasis". Here in the Oasis you can be anyone and do anything there.
The Oasis was the brainchild of James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. The two had a big falling out leaving Halliday in total control of the Oasis. But he died, and his dying wish was to devise a competition that left a trail of three virtual keys in the Oasis leading to an 'easter egg': which if found would provide the finder with total ownership of the Oasis and the trillions of dollars that it is worth.
But the game is not only played by amateur gunters (egg-hunters) like protagonists Wade Watts and Samantha (they flirt a lot! He loves her!); there are big corporate game-hunters who try to find the keys before anyone else. Throughout the movie, you follow Wade on his amazing journey to capture all the keys before the corporate scum do.
Although the movie is a little long and full of CGI, everything is done incredibly well. The end is very satisfying and I really recommend watching it!