Ready Player One - Reality is boring

Steven Spielberg is always known for surprising audiences and he's back doing some crazy stuff with his latest movie and I consider myself unlucky to have missed a chance to watch it in theaters. Ready Player One is a movie about gaming and man it was totally out of this world. Spielberg is a legend no doubt but I didn't expect a masterpiece like this even from such a legend who is 71 years old, another person proving that age is just a number. This dude is just so adaptable, he's been making movies from the 70s, but he has consistently made the audience go crazy with Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park the list is just never-ending. In recent times he made Bridge of spies and the post but he has once again managed to capture the youth audience of 2018, especially the gamers here bringing us something so fresh.

THE CGI

I want to talk about this right away because this is probably some of the best CGI you're ever going to see. The movie is a visual treat right from the start and every scene is just going to make you stop in awe and wonder how they even managed to get something like that but a few seconds later, when you're trying to realize how amazing the previous scene was, there's going to be something even better coming your way the next scene. It's ironic that people usually criticize certain CGI scenes of movies complaining that some scenes looked like graphics from video games but this is literally a video game movie with some of the best graphics ever put to the big screen.

There's a scene where they show us king kong, a few dinosaurs, Joker, Harley Quinn, and the iron giant, but I've got to say, this version looks much better than the original versions. The CGI alone makes this a masterpiece but coupled with a great plot, great editing, and great writing, this was just out of the world. 

PLOT

So this is set in the year 2045 where civilization has given up trying to make the world a better place, people are just survivors, settled in small groups in many places. We follow Wade Wyatt, played by Tye Sheridan who lives with his aunt, almost giving us a Peter Parker kind of vibe. The people of 2045 are into this gaming world known as the Oasis, a virtual gaming world where you can create your avatar, and do whatever you want to. It's very similar to video games where you collect coins for your achievements and dying makes you start from scratch.

So the brains behind the Oasis was this guy called Halliday, played by Mark Rylance.  I feel like Halliday's character was inspired by a little bit of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Mark dies after creating the Oasis but since he doesn't have a successor, he comes as his avatar Anorak and announces to the people of the Oasis that there are three specific missions which need to be completed after which the player would receive three different keys to unlock the ultimate treasure, the winner would be the next successor of the Oasis.

THE OASIS

So the Oasis is basically an escape for the people from reality where there's basically just enough for the people to make it through the day, almost giving us the feeling of dream sharing from inception where people go to sleep to be woken up. People are far more comfortable being in the Oasis. Basically, all they need to have is a virtual reality headset and a treadmil, they feel every punch, stabbing, and injury but in the end, all they have to do to come back to reality is remove the headset.

So the Oasis is about to be taken over by this typical corporate guy called Nolan Sorrento who is the CEO of the world's largest internet providers, Innovative online industries (IOI) who also turns out to be the main antagonist of the movie. In order to prevent the Oasis from losing its glory, Wyatt and his friends try their best to beat Sorrento at his game.

TYE SHERIDAN - WADE WYATT/PARZIVAL

Tye Sheridan has now played two characters who wear goggles, he was previously playing Scott Summers in X-Men Apocalypse, at this rate he might get to be the next Tom Hardy who is known for wearing masks in his best roles. His avatar, Parzival is one of the millions of avatars in the Oasis who tries to strategically win the three keys. We see him go head-on with Sorrento, attempting to rescue the Oasis. James Halliday is his idol and he knows almost everything about him. His puzzle solving ability gets him very close to the answers. But I couldn't help but get a Charlie and the chocolate factory vibe here, with Halliday at Willy Wonka's place and Wade at Charlie's place and the plot was basically the same.

Wade closely follows Halliday's life choices and wonders if they hold the key to finding the three keys. Of course, Wade can't do this without a group of friends. He meets Aech, Artemis, Sho and Daito in the Oasis who becomes close with Parzival (Wade). It's amazing how close they become without even meeting once in the real world. Together, they try to stop Sorrento from taking over the Oasis. Each of their contributions are valuable and there was something to like about everyone. The chemistry between Artemis and Wade was great and the fact that the makers of the movie decided to use an 11-year-old kid in the team as the best player was perfect because let's face it, most of those online gamers who kick our asses turn out to be just as old.

THE EASTER EGGS

Hidden inside each frame of this movie are plenty of Easter eggs and references to games and movies. Although I was able to catch a few of them I'm sure most of them slipped by me. Seriously I'm not sure even if the most intense movie and game fans were able to spot all of them. Watching this movie made me realize how much of a nerd Spielberg used to be. I'm sure there will be a few of us who will end up watching this multiple times just for the Easter eggs. I even learned a few things about some games which I found was exciting. One such thing I learned was the concept of Easter eggs where we get to see the first ever Easter egg in a game whose name I don't want to reveal. That game has revolutionized the whole world today, creating the concept of Easter eggs which are now used almost everywhere.

This is the godfather of all video game movies and the references here are another reason why you should watch this. It was nice to see characters like Clark Kent, Batman, Harley Quinn, Peter Parker, and Bruce Banner get mentioned a few times some of them were even shown on the big screen, the comic book fan in me couldn't help but rejoice on seeing these characters. I'm sure other comic book fans had their fair share of fun spotting those references. This movie has something for almost everyone in the audience, whether you're a movie buff, a gamer, a comic book fan or someone who just enjoys brilliant visuals.

MARK RYLANCE AND SIMON PEGG - JAMES HALLIDAY AND ODGEN MORROW 

I wanted to talk about two specific characters here, James Halliday played by Mark Ryllance and Odgen Morrow played by Simon Pegg. I've admired both these amazing actors for quite some time now. I love Mark Ryllance's performance in Bridge of Spies, also directed by Spielberg and Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and he doesn't disappoint here. Rylance does a great job as Halliday, showing off exactly how a genius would behave. There's so much depth to his character and a perfect reason for why he is the boss of the world. The plot of this movie and the idea behind the oasis may all seem a bit complicated but the answers for his Easter eggs were just based on his life experiences.  His hairstyle gave us almost an Albert Einstein vibe. Another thing I loved was his avatar Anorak. Anorak's CGI was epic and it reminded me of Albus Dumbledore. Even after death, Halliday continues to live as Anorak. I absolutely loved James Halliday and I'm sure most of you will agree with me.

I can't be done without talking about Simon Pegg. He's barely here but whenever he does come, he absolutely nails it. He plays Odgen Morrow, Halliday's best friend and I loved how they worked together. Simon Pegg has also given us some memorable performances like Benji from the mission impossible series and Scotty from the Star Trek series. Here he plays Odgen Morrow and he's one of my favourite characters in this movie. His avatar was revealed towards the end and I was just spellbound after getting to know who he was. I hope to see more such great performances from Simon Pegg in the coming years and there was just so much to love about Morrow.

Overall, this movie was amazing, it had everything that you need to make an epic movie. There was a great plot, top notch CGI, drama, brilliant writing, so much for us to learn about the gaming world, plenty of Easter eggs for fans, some really awesome soundtracks by Alan Silvestri who is on a roll now after composing the soundtrack for Infinity war. There's very little not to like here and I am just not able to think of any negatives. Maybe one of the negatives is that it relies heavily on nostalgia and pop culture references, maybe some people won't be able to enjoy this as much as others and it also relies on the audience's focus, if you lose track of one scene, you might not get the next scene, other than that nothing much to complain. I cant wait to watch it again for multiple reasons. This will go down as one of the movies with the best CGI. 2018 is turning out to be great for action lovers, Infinity war, Mission Impossible Fallout, Ready Player One, the list just keeps getting better. I already love Spielberg but the way he managed to keep up with the modern era of gamers and movie fans is just another thing we love about him now, truly a legend.

Verdict

Fan in me: 9.5/10

Critic in me: 9.5/10

T.J. Miller has a role here too, though we don't see his real self, his avatar, I-ROk who is supposed to be a villain turns out to be the comic relief. That's probably how T.J. Miller would be as an avatar. Too little to complain about here, watch it and get ready to be spellbound, Spielberg is the best and this will be another Spielberg classic. His list is just never ending. Looking forward to seeing more such amazing movies from him.