A credible Science Fiction Epic,

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2018)

Ready Player One: It opens with a washed out filter scene of stacked mobile homes and portacabins. 18 year old wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) descends by rope from his aunt's home, passing many people in VR goggles gaming away. This is a society without hope, pollution, climate change and economic crashes have produced a dystopian world. Wade's parents died in the aftermath of a cataclysmic cyber event when many systems failed.
The only escape is through the online VR world, OASIS. Within that universe there is a game Anorak's Quest, invented by the late creator of OASIS, James Halliday. The goal is to find three keys and thereby win the "Easter Egg" which will earn the winner half a trillion dollars and full ownership of OASIS. Wadeis Parzival in the game and has friends and fellow competitors such as Samantha/Art3mis (Olivia Cook) and Helen/Aech (Lena Walthe).
But there is also Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the CEO of Innovative Online Industries, who seeks full control over the OASIS. IOI is a video game conglomerate and manufactures most of the VR equipment used to access the OASIS. Sorrento has amassed an army of debt-indentured gamers to seek the keys.
Similar to Blade Runner in some aspects, run-down cities, economic/environmental collapse but differing in an absence of androids and most of the action occurring in VR. There are many cultural references, ranging from the gamers having to fight King Kong and Jurassic Park style dinosaurs to the Iron Giant battling Mechagodzilla.There is also a game sequence set in The Shining where , Aech encounters the Twins and is drenched by the blood filled lift.
Coin earned in the OASIS not only allows gamers to build equipment and artifacts in VR but may also be used in the real world. Being killed online has serious consequences in both worlds as it reduces the gamers status and holdings to zero. "Dead" gamers even attempt suicide.
The evil IOI Corporation looks somewhat like the Scientologists. Slave-labour gamers in it's Loyalty Centres whilst planners/researchers wear suits and ties. It's Security Chief (Hannah John-Kamen) is suitably ruthless like a higher level SeaOrg Hubbardite. Evil and cruel but not pantomime villain depraved.
Steven Spielberg has directed and produced a credible Science Fiction epic, scripted by the novel author Ernest Cline (with Zak Penn) with many filters and hues by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. Too many involved in special effects to know who to thank. My only quibble with Ready Player One is it's 140 minutes running time, it could have lost 15 minutes and been a better film. 8.5/10