A Colorful Road To Nowhere.

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2018)

Ready Player One (2018).

Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.

Parzival (Tye Sheridan) must locate three hidden keys to save the Oasis from ruination and control by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn). Parzival teams up with a group of unlikely allies - but will their combined skills be enough to save the Oasis?
Director Steven Spielberg (A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind & Minority Report) with writers Zak Penn & Ernest Cline deliver a film that is high in visual spectacle but low in plot. The story of Parzival is not unique or original, but that is not where the fault lies: The problem is that the reason for the film's existence is utterly lost amongst the plethora of digital Easter eggs hurled at the viewer. Somewhere amid all the cavorting game avatars, and after the opening act, Ready Player One just starts to exist on its own with no clear relation between the actors' actions and the theme of the movie.
The script puts very little meat on the bones for the actors to work with, and despite their considerable skills, they are all left playing versions of themselves in an endlessly fascinating digital world.
The CGI is amazing, and the movie is fun in a very retrograde way, but the depth of the message is ultimately lost amid the renderings.