Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with CGI

Rating: 6/10 (28 April 2018)

In this Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi film, directed by Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jurassic Park) and screenplay written by Zak Penn (The Avengers, X-Men 2) and Ernest Cline (Fanboys, Armada) based on Cline's novel, Tye Sheridan (X-Men Apocalypse, Mud) stars as Wade (aka Parzival) who joins other players Art3mis/Samantha (Olivia Cooke: The Signal, Ouija), Aech/Helen (Lena Waithe: Dear White People, Master of None), Sho (Philip Zhao in his first acting role) and Daito (Win Morisaki: Kamen Rider W, Sherry) as they try to be the first one to find all three Easter Eggs. Also trying to find them is leader of an evil corporation who wishes to uses OASIS for profit, Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn: The Dark Knight Rises, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) aided in the game by I-R0k (T. J. Miller: Deadpool, Big Hero 6) and F'Nale Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen: Black Mirror, Ant-Man and the Wasp) in reality.
Using clues from the OASIS designer James Halliday's life aka Anorak (Mark Rylance: The BFG, Bridge of Spies), including scenes featuring his business partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg: Hot Fuzz, Sean of the Dead) and his late wife Kira (Perdita Weeks: Hamlet. Spice World), Wade and his friends work against Sorrento as the High Five. Will they beat him?
This film felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with CGI and for me, the sequences relying heavily on computer generated images slowed it down. Although I enjoyed the many 80s references and, if you will excuse the pun, the Easter Egg pop culture references for those in the know, the live action parts were far more enjoyable for me. Having not read the book (yet), I am sure these were made more of than in the movie but the action scenes speed by so fast there is hardly any time to register the Delorean before it is gone, to give just one example.
There were also some slow sections that detracted not helped by the one-dimensional characters and predictable plot but the scene in the hotel which channeled The Shining was done very well, even if it did make my son determined never to watch that movie.
Despite this, I loved the idea of the OASIS and the future depicted. Wade's home in 'The Stacks' felt very real and the bad guy's plan to put ads in people's visuals whilst playing the game, scarily possible. Even to the point that he was warned it could affect vision and minds.
I look forward to reading the book