Ready Player One: Press Start

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2018)

Steven Spielberg's latest film is an adaptation of the phenomenal Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. While the movie differs from the book, sometimes greatly, the core story is still the same: nothing beats reality. I had to see the film twice before being able to write a fair review because it is so visually overwhelming that you completely miss lines of dialogue.
Spielberg's film opens with a walk through the Stacks alongside our lead character narrating how humanity got here; but it's when we enter the Oasis that Spielberg truly proves he is the master of film making. In an age where technology is starting to dominate everything, filmmakers are faced with a unique challenge: how to preserve analog in a world of special effects.
Well known for his unique ability for story telling, Spielberg chose the perfect story to show the world that you don't have to choose between analog and CGI, you can have your cake and eat it too. The world of the Oasis is so fantastic and boundless that you completely understand why everyone lives inside of it instead of the real world, sort of like a reverse Matrix. The fact that the Oasis is virtual reality makes it an easy sell for CGI.
While being eye-poppingly pleasing, Spielberg is also true to the message of Ernest Cline's best-selling book. Our hero of the story Wade Watts, aka ParZival, sees the Oasis and Halliday's prize as a way out of his crappy life as a poor orphan sleeping on his aunt's washer and dryer. It's only when he meets our heroine Art3mis that he realizes there is something truly bigger going on around him.
Relevant to what is happening in our own time, it is centred around the fact that it only takes a small group of dedicated people to change the world, for better or worse. It also highlights one of the main downfalls of social media, people creating a false version of themselves online either for confidence reasons or malicious ones.
The film is tremendously fun, packed with pop culture icons from not only the 80's but the 90's, 2000's, and present, making it even more relatable to people of all ages. It's a classic story of the underdog rising up to save the day and get the girl that has been modernized for our generation.
Ready Player One is a perfect example adapting stories, the film is both close enough to the book to make readers incredibly happy and different enough to stand on it's own, something only Spielberg can do. Ironically it also serves as a great template on how to make a video game movie.