As Ohio goes, so goes the nation..

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2018)

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As Ohio goes, so goes the nation? A quotation with political implications that
typically accompanies primary election season, but in the realm of Ready Player One, it's all about the players involved. Notably, Steven Spielberg, 3-time Oscar winner and global box office behemoth, who's movies have grossed upwards of $9.4 billion, and Ernest Cline, the first time novelist, who's book started a bidding war back in 2010. Spielberg, the movie's director is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cline hails from Ashland, Ohio. But, maybe more importantly the film's setting is Columbus, Ohio in the year 2045, which perhaps provide a backdrop that isn't overtly familiar to the average American, insofar as it represents a place in people's minds of Middle American tastes and cultures that differ from those of locales closer in proximity to places like New York, Los Angeles, or Boston.
I say all that to say that video games and video game culture create worlds on television sets and in our minds that provide a respite where many of us can and have spent hours of our lives, collecting coins, upgrading armor, slaying bosses, and whatever else that simply cannot be done in the real world. Much appreciation goes to Cline for his uncanny ability to pen a novel that touches on so many poignant moments in 1980's American culture that also connects to the modern world in what companies like Oculus are trying to do with virtual reality, to allow us to live in our video games. See Ready Player One, for its ability to bring out a lot of that nostalgia, while giving a wishful template for what modern VR headsets hope to achieve and for just being 2 hours of action, entertainment, and some laughs.
Criticism has been lauded on this movie, which Spielberg was keen to refer to it as at a presser at Comic Con before its release, so as not to confuse it with his more high-brow fare like The Post, Lincoln, or Bridge of Spies, for its frenetic pace and its inability to create deeper connections with the incessant pop culture references and items of nostalgia that litter the movie like confetti on stadium turf after a world champion is crowned. But, for those having read Cline's book, they understand that the best apart about the novel was the hunt... Sure there was time during the novel to sort of sit back and reminisce as to why spending hours in a local arcade playing Pac-Man or some other 80's game was formative and provided life lessons that could be reflected back on thirty years later, but the coolest thing about the book was connecting the dots of an epic scavenger hunt where the stakes were so high, especially where being successful at the hunt required having knowledge of off beat stuff from popular movies to more obscure ones. It essentially gave self-proclaimed video game nerds and fan girls an opportunity to read about it what it would be like to excel at something that the whole world saw considerable value in.
I was very impressed with how Spielberg and company were able to visualize this movie and bring it to life. My guess is that soooo much more than I'd expect in this movie is CGI, but it's not poorly done where it looks "too fake", it accompanies the actors especially well in the action scenes, particularly the opening race scene through NYC. The cast selected to play the roles was very on point with only Olivia Cooke seeming to me, to be not the most ideal pick to play Art3mis/Samantha, but they made up for this by playing up the role of Hannah John-Kamen's character, F'Nale Zandor, who pairs well with Nolan Sorrento's sinister tendencies and actions in trying to control the OASIS. Lena Waithe as Aech/Helen was a role that I was really looking forward to after I discovered that she had earned the spot, and she didn't disappoint. Although, it was disappointing that a particular story line involving her was left out of the movie. T.J. Miller as I-Rok provides a lot of high quality humor throughout the film, its a shame that they didn't give him a bit more screen time.