a kaleidoscopic RPG-VR enterprise heralds a future where live action and VR together can confect something unimaginably spectacular.

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2018)

Hooray gamers and geeks, Steven Spielberg's kaleidoscopic RPG-VR enterprise, based on Ernest Cline's eponymous YA novel, READY PLAYER ONE has already scooped a lucrative sum in its theatrical run, $582 million global grosses is such a coup for a standalone studio vehicle these days.
In the near future, reality is a bummer, so most people immerses themselves in the VR universe called OASIS designed by the deceased genius James Halliday (Rylance, emulating a slightly listless Steve Jobs), for thrills and chills, where one can undergo vicarious experience through their game avatar, and our protagonist Parzival/Wade Watts (Sheridan, sorry, no marquee idol charisma can be sensed here), the former is his avatar name and the latter is his name in real life, is not just one of them, but the best by default, since we have zero doubt that he will bird-dog three hidden keys and eventually bags the sought-after Easter egg, all pre-ordained by Halliday and to a befuddling reincarnation in the climax, solely as a stream of consciousness (or is it not? the film remains evasive), to inherit OASIS against the unscrupulous competition from a corporate organization IOI (Innovative Online Industries), headed by Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn, gamely spiking mischievous self-awareness into the stereotyped antagonist), not without the help a contingent of fellow gamers, including his love interest Art3mis/Samantha (Cooke), his best friend Aech/Helen (Waithe, although her gender-swapping reveal loses its momentum amid the action-packed brouhaha offhand) and, naturally, two Asian side-kicks.
Interestingly, it is not an exaggeration to call READY PLAYER ONE an animation predicated on its predominant VR contents, but in the eyes of a lay audience, it also obscures the line between mocap and pure digital creation, there are lingering resemblance between characters and their virtual avatars, but one cannot visually discern the difference (at least in this reviewer's case), yet, it is this seamless amalgamation of live action and virtual reality (definitely not its sophomoric plot) that puts the film on the map, it vigorously heralds a future where these two seemingly discrete strands can work together to confect something unimaginably spectacular.
Conversely, allow me to detract from its technological innovation to something more retrospective, Spielberg cannily plays the cards of collective nostalgia ranging from baby boomers to Generation Z with a gallimaufry of pop culture staples (The Iron Giant, Mechagodzilla, King Kong, The Shining, Chucky, just to name a few which I can recollect from my limited knowledge pertaining to American pop culture, and practically with no inkling of the video game sphere), bombards us with over a hundred Easter eggs even the most keen-eyed aficionados ought to fall back on repeated viewings to pick them all out, so lucre from DVD purchase is on tap and a sequel, like as not, will be on the drawing board any day now.