Great, nerdy fun in a great adventurous package

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2018)

I'm not going to lie, I may be a little biased here. I'm both a huge Spielberg fan and a huge fan of 80's retro, not to mention a massive nerd. So, this movie, as well as the book, were for me through and through. If you're not any of these things, you probably won't understand the love for this property, and if you're only one or two of these things, you probably won't like the property as much. But for me, this was the most fun with a film I've had this year and may have all year long.
For those unfamiliar, Ready Player One is the geekiest of geek stories about a virtual world called the Oasis where the world spends much of it's time doing pretty much whatever they want. It's created has just died and he's left for the users of the Oasis an easter egg, hidden in the game, that when found will give them control over the Oasis as well as enough money to make them rich for life. After this egg is Wade Watts, aka Parzeval, and several of his friends, while the dastardly corporation IOI, led by evil corporate overlord Sorrento, try to get it to monetize the entire thing.
The book this is based on was never an amazing classic in the way some speak about it. The story elements of it felt very fanfictiony and rote. Typical nerdy protagonist whose a regular, losery guy in real life is an amazeballs dude in the Oasis who becomes the hero, gets the girl, blah, blah, blah. The movie isn't too different.The cast is all fairly good in their roles, though most of them feel very plain and relatively dull as characters. Tye Sheridan, who is an excellent actor, makes for a decent, if unremarkably white bread, lead. Olivia Cooke is the badass vixen and love interest, also very typical, but also with great presence and chemistry with Tye. Stealing every scene they're in is Lena Waithe as Aech whose both funny and badass. Opposite them is Ben Mendelson as very typical corporate baddie Sorrento and the usually funny TJ Miller voicing digital mercenary I-R0k, who is in fact funny here. Mark Rylance shows up in flashbacks as, what amounts to, the most emotionally meaty role with Oasis creator Halliday. For arguments sake, you could say that he is the lead character and that the real journey is his, with the characters all being just the witnesses to his story.
As you may be able to tell, there's a lot here that's fairly typical and cliche. That was true of the book too. But that's not really why people are here. It's not why people loved the book. And it is here that the movie actually excels in quality. Spielberg has crafted one of his best adventures in years and hasn't made something this fun in a long time. Though fans of the book may balk at the many, many changes made by Spielberg and novel-author-and-script-co-writer Ernest Cline, it's for the best as many of the events from the book wouldn't work as well on a visual level. And the movie looks absolutely amazing. The Oasis and it's avatars are a spectacle to behold and the action is fantastic. Other scenes, like one taking place in a very familiar and famous movie location, are fun, creative twists. While the real world scenes don't work quite as well, they still hold up with Spielberg's typically great attention to detail and world building.
Some of these scenes, in particular an early race and the climactic battle, are worth the price alone. And the geeky references, not just to 80's pop culture, but geek pop culture in general, come like shots from a video game weapon. The audience I saw this with had a blast and would giggle with glee every time something familiar and awesomely nerdy would show up on screen. There are moments that nerds everywhere may not know they needed to see that show up and it's truly a sight to behold. Some people may not be able to appreciate a film as pure spectacle, and they are certainly entitled to that opinion, but for the rest of us, the man who invented the summer blockbuster returns with another winner yet again. This is a love letter to geek culture and wins based almost purely on being a fantastic ride.
Ready Player One takes the blockbuster filmmaking bible to heart and delivers in spades on fun spectacle. I imagine Spielberg had a ton of fun with this and they could not have found a better director, someone who knows exactly what this film needed to succeed. It certainly won me over put my fears to rest as to whether it would be a good film or not. It won't be for everyone, but for anyone looking to just have a good time with the film, you can be rest assured too. This one's a winner.