Not Spielberg's best, but still decent

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2018)

READY PLAYER ONE is the latest installment in visionary Steven Spielberg's ever-growing collection of stories. While not his best work, it is still worth at least one watch.
The movie itself is not terrible. For crying out loud, it's Spielberg we're talking about! He only makes good films and not-so-good films. That being said, this particular film had a balance of good elements and not-so-good elements. One of its weakest elements was that it did not offer enough surprises. This is especially odd because that has been Spielberg's job for more than 40 years. The good news is: it's not his fault. Rather, it was the writing that was more at fault.
Before getting into how basic the overall writing was, it is fair to say that the storyline was somewhat passable. Taking on a similar tale to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this story follows a worldwide competition to win ownership of the entire virtual reality world. One of the problems, however, was that it was only the VR world that seemed to be at stake. There was almost no connection to the circumstances of the real world, causing a lack of emotional depth to the story and making it difficult for the audience to relate to the conflict. Another problem was a lack of explanation as to how the world became such a desolate wasteland by the year 2045. This is a plot point that is barely explained in the beginning and should have been expanded more or somehow tied into the conflict that occurs in the video game.
On top of this, the screenplay consisted of far too much expository dialogue relating to the cultural references that appear every so often. It may be a good method for avoiding any confusion from any one without knowledge of video games, but does the audience really need a history lesson every ten minutes?
Keep in mind, this is all coming from someone who has never read the book. And it's certain there is a reason for the story being told the way it was. However, just as a wild thought, what would have worked better is if the story revolved around adult players and if it was more humorous without becoming raunchy. This would allow the adult video game community to relate to this film even more, since they already seem to enjoy the 80's references.
The cast in this film is a mixed variety in terms of talent. Some of the great performances came from Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg (as always), Mark Rylance, and Ben Mendelsohn; all actors who held such presence in the moment and breathed life into the motives of their characters. One of the actors who lacked those qualities was Tye Sheridan, who played the main protagonist. Unfortunately, he seemed to only pretended to take his role seriously by channeling feigned euphoria as part of his character, instead of carrying a down-to-earth charisma like Cooke did. As a result of this, his performance was not believable enough and, ultimately, did not carry enough weight throughout the film.
One strong element of this film was its production design. Calling back to Spielberg's work on The Adventures of Tintin, the visual effects offer a remarkable view of a world that has never been seen onscreen before. Beginning with a riveting vehicle race featuring King Kong himself, it makes one wonder why Spielberg has never directed a movie based on an actual video game.
In short, READY PLAYER ONE may not be the best film in ages, but there is a lot about this film that simply works. One will be able to find a good a time in being taken on a visual journey and may even get a kick out of some of the pop culture references. Or if one is curious to go through Steven Spielberg's extensive filmography, this is a worthy title of looking into.