Ready Player One: 8.1

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2018)

Ready Player One starts off being unimpressive. Partly due to a generically worded monologue by the main character, but over the course of the movie your attention exponentially grows and entwines into the story. The first time seeing the Oasis is a little underwhelming, and the visual effects are jarring, but it grows on you. Seeing Wade's friends inside the Oasis ultimately becomes really fun to watch. The most of the references in this movies are brisk and don't overstay their welcome, but the same cannot be said for other ones. There comes a point in the story where Wade and his gang venture into the Overlook hotel, and it is phenomenal. Definitely the high point in the movie. The final battle is one of surprises and grandness. With interesting new concepts for a battle given that the story to this movie is somewhat unique. The ending as a whole is one of heart touching sights and events that ground the people back to the roots of video games for a moment. Near the end everybody on the Oasis isn't going on these giant complicated adventures. They're just watching Wade play a simple 80's video game. When Ben Mendelsohn opens the door to the van at the end to kill Wade, the kids yell "Stop! Please!". It's a moment of self reflection for Ben's character. He turns off his businessman mentality to just look at Wade holding the Easter egg, crying. It's an amazing moment. The cast and their avatars for the most part work. I'd say Mark Rylance had the best performance. He was a unique character and fascinating character, and I appreciated that the world was crying when he died. Ben Mendo did a great job playing an evil businessman, and I loved his avatar. H was funny, and I liked the little twist that he was a girl. Olivia Cooke suited her role well also. Although I didn't like her avatar very much. Lastly Tye Sheridan was fine, but his avatar easily could've been better. One of the things I didn't like about his character Wade in particular was how he fell into that cliché of playing video games with the girl for about 3 days, and allegedly fell in love with her. Which didn't work at any level. Again some of Wade's dialogue is just generically written that underwhelms, and at times exclusive to the first 30 minutes there was times when I felt that I was just watching a cutscene from a video game. Overall, Ready Player One is a fun adventure that easily could've been a train wreck, but with it brings a lot of heart and emotion at the center of the story making it very memorable. Even if some of the attempts at heart didn't work. So I give it an 8.1