Worth A Watch! 7/10

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2018)

Review:
I actually enjoyed the first half of this movie, and the whole "3 Keys" concept was great but it seemed to go a bit crazy in the middle. Spielberg took full advantage of today's technology, in terms of the CGI, and he gave the film a meaning, by paying as much attention to the storyline, as the look of the film. As the movie was adapted from a popular book, written by Ernest Cline, Spielberg had a tough task to stay true to the original concept, which he did to perfection. I wasn't too impressed with the acting but the action made up for it, especially towards the end. Anyway, the movie is set in 2045, where people regularly seek escape from life through the virtual reality entertainment universe OASIS, which was created by James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), of Gregarious Games. After Halliday's death in 2040, a pre-recorded message left by his avatar, Anorak, announces a game granting ownership of Oasis to the first to find the Golden Easter Egg within it, locked behind a gate requiring three keys. The contest has lured a number of egg hunters, and the interest of Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), who seeks to control OASIS himself. IOI uses a number of indentured servants and employees called "Sixers" to find the egg. Meanwhile, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is an orphaned teenager living in the slums of Columbus Ohio with his aunt Alice. He is also an OASIS user, whose avatar is called Parzival, and is close friends with another user called Aech, a virtual mechanic. Parzival becomes close friends with another egg hunter called Art3mis, after saving her life while they are looking for one of the keys, and they manage to piece together 2 of the clues, using Halliday's historical files, to gain the keys. With Aech and his friends, Daito and Sho joining forces with Parzival and Art3mis, known as "High Five", they immediately become stars in the OASIS community, and they top the scoreboard of egg hunters, which upsets Sorrento's plans to take over. He soon manages to get Parzival's true identity, and he tries to sway Wade into joining IOI, which he refuses. In retaliation, Sorrento has IOI's head of operations, F'Nale Zandor, to bomb Wade's place, which kills Alice. Art3mis player, Samantha Cook, rescues Wade but they too are soon found by IOI, who captures and forces Samantha into their servitude. Wade is extracted by the other High Five members, who discover Samantha's location, and remotely help her to escape. The third challenge requires one to play Halliday's favourite Atari 2600 game, in a castle on Planet Doom, which Sorrento has protected with a force field. Parzival recruits other OASIS players to help the rebels attack the IOI forces around the castle. Art3mis deactivates the force field, allowing Parzival to reach the console but Sorrento activates the Cataclyst, a bomb that kills all the avatars on Planet Doom. As Parzival was given an extra life from the Archives Curator, he's able to proceed to play through the adventure to find the final key. After passing various tests set by Halliday, Parzival is given total control of the OASIS, which he splits with the other members of High Five. Sorrento is then arrested for bombing Planet Doom, and Parzival decides to shut the OASIS 2 days a week, so everyone spends more time in the real world. It's quite a detailed plot, which is original in a lot of ways but it could have been much simpler, so it would have attracted a younger audience. With all of the references to older movies, Spielberg could have made a movie spectacular but he chose to stay a bit safe by not pushing the boundaries. You do have to look hard to see the various movies that are used throughout the movie but some are very blatant, liked the use of the DeLorean from Back To The Future, King Kong and Akira's bike, which is Art3mis vehicle of choice. From an entertainment point of view, this movie works in a lot of ways, and the plot is very well put together but I'm sure that it would have been something special if it was Spielberg's own creation. A sequel hasn't been planned as yet but there is talk about a Ready Player 2 from the original writer. In all, it's a great watch, especially if you watch it in a cinema, or have a spectacular cinema system but it's not mysterious and magical like his previous projects. Enjoyable!
Round-Up:
As I've said many times before, this movie is directed by Steven Spielberg, who made his first feature film in 1964, called Firelight. After directing a few TV episodes, his next feature film was made in 1974, called The Sugarland Express, and then he returned with the critically acclaimed Jaws in 1975. Next came Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, and 1941 in 1979. After a couple of years away from the camera, he returned with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, and E.T. in 1982. Then came Twilight Zone in 1988, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Always, Hook, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park 1&2, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, A.I., Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, BFG, and the Post in 2017. With West Side Story and another Indiana Jones movie in the pipeline, Spielberg still has a lot of work left in him, and he has also produced over 100 movies, which means that he does a lot of work away from the camera as well. He is truly Mr. Hollywood, and after watching over 2 hours of bonus material, his calm demeanour, and pleasant personality really does prove that he is one of the best directors in the world today.
Budget: $175million
Worldwide Gross: $582million
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi
Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hannah John-Kamen, Ralph Ineson, Susan Lynch and Clare Higgins. 7/10