A mixed bag, but nevertheless offers up a world of exciting possibilities

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2019)

Ready Player One (2018). Ready Player One is a mixed bag, but nevertheless offers up a world of exciting possibilities. This high tech, futuristic action adventure relies less on psychological crime thrills such as The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and less on the super blockbuster sci fi action adventure of The Matrix (1999) more of a computerized, virtual reality quest version of magical fantasy of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), including the incorporation of one of the first use of a text-based computer game Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) or the adolescent version of virtual reality of Surrogates (2009) or Inception (2010).
This movie attempts to introduce the audience to the visual spectacular and special effects design of the future that Avatar (2009) introduced and boldly surpassed of the original efforts of virtual reality classic Tron (1982). Yet at the same time, the heavy artificial look of much of the movie really diminished the likely futuristic impact of what the real experience is likely to be which still falls behind what was accomplished in Brainstorm (1983), which remains one of the classic standards of virtual reality movie-making.
Steven Spielberg offers plenty of references to classic movies such as The Iron Giant (1999), The Shining (1980) and the more obscure but highly rated movies fantasy movie Excalibur (1981) and one of the most bizarre sci fi classics The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and even the Back to the Future (1985) DeLorean time machine. Overall, Ready One Player is a compelling, entertaining yet strangely not completely satisfying futuristic look at our computer, internet, technological future.