Ready Player One (2018 Film) Review
"Ready Player One" is directed by cinematic icon, Steven Spielberg, and is an adaptation of a book by Ernest Cline, who wrote this script along with Zak Penn. Tye Sheridan stars as the film's lead, Wade Watts. The supporting cast includes Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Phillip Zhao, and Win Morisaki.
When I first found out that "Ready Player One" was coming soon, and that it was being helmed by Steven Spielberg, I got myself acquainted with the material. Discovering that it was based on a book, I proceeded to read that book and, afterwards, brought up the upcoming film adaptation with a friend. Together, we discussed the many pop culture references that were surely to be included in the film. My friend brought up an interesting point. "Are people going to see this film for the actual story, or to see characters that they already know and love, make a reappearance on the big screen?"
A good point there. After all, who wouldn't want to see the Iron Giant or the DeLorean make a cinematic encore? The story at hand is so interesting though, how could one not be excited to see this visionary concept be portrayed in this visual medium? Admittedly, when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was being hyped, all I cared about was seeing all my old favorites back, not so much about the new characters being introduced. Still, the cast members here are good, how could one not be excited, right?
Luckily, everything about "Ready Player One" delivers for me. Yes, it does deviate from the source material quite a bit, but I as established in my "Murder on the Orient Express" review, I review this genre of film as if I've never read the book before. Even if I didn't, my feelings about this film would be overwhelmingly positive. In the last few years, Spielberg has made films that haven't quite lived up to the high standard he's set for himself. "The BFG", another adaptation of a novel, was particularly bad in my opinion.
"Ready Player One" is, more or less, a return-to-form for the director. And what a return it was because Spielberg delivers another masterpiece. I thought he was the best choice to adapt this story, and he knocked it out of the park. This is a blockbuster that is in the same vein as his earlier films like "Jaws", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", and "Jurassic Park". I single those out because "Ready Player One" has all the elements that made those films so great, spread throughout this fresh and exciting adventure. While the story is interesting from the beginning, it was the characters that made it even more enthralling.
The Heroes
When I started reading the novel, I had my doubts about the casting of Tye Sheridan, simply because he wasn't who I would've picked to play Wade Watts. "In the book, Wade is [insert traditional book reader rant]. Tye Sheridan is not this." The actor doesn't have that big a filmography and at the time, I had watched "X-Men: Apocalypse" for the first time and I did not like his dry and dull performance as Cyclops, so I went into the film with that in mind.
Either that was just an off-day for him, or I must've missed something in that performance, but Tye Sheridan blindsided me with a terrific performance as Wade Watts. "Exceeding my expectations" would not be apt enough. More like, "Couldn't have picked a better actor." Beyond capturing everything I love about the character, Sheridan went beyond off-book and took the character to more interesting places than in the book. He felt more of a compelling character. Partially because of the script, but also because of Tye Sheridan's acting. This performance will definitely not win him an Oscar, unless the Academy decides to recognize blockbusters, but I couldn't have asked for a better performance than the one he gave in this movie.
In my last review, I touched on the fact that a capable, robust heroine is a new craze going around many divisions of Hollywood. Where Olive Cooke surprised me as Samantha, was that she didn't feel like a blatant attempt at creating one of those heroines. So often, studios churn out heroines that, other than kicking butt, didn't have much to their character. Don't get me wrong, Samantha kicks a lot of butt, but she had personality to her. The film took time to let the audience get to know her and she turned out to be as compelling as Wade was, which added a lot of sense to their romantic pairing.
It's actually kind of interesting to see Steven Spielberg include romance into his films again. He's done it many times, but after spending so long on creating dramatic, Oscar-bait fare, romance has been pushed to the background for him. With "Ready Player One", this is the first time in a while, that the director has put romance to the forefront of his films. Yes, behind all the nostalgic references and grand visuals, "Ready Player One" is a love story between our two main characters, Wade (Parzival) and Samantha (Art3mis). Since romance wasn't one of the main story points of the novel, I was afraid that making it one of the more prominent players (get it) in the story, would feel tired and old. As with a large portion of the film, I was surprised and what's so well done about it, is that it fits within the story. Part of Wade's journey in the film, is to learn what love, real love, is and it plays out beautifully. Both actors were capable, both were endearing, and both had amazing chemistry with one another. I felt the love between these characters and it was endearing.The rest of the protagonists aren't as prominent. With a lot to do in one hundred and forty minutes, Spielberg wisely puts the focus on the things that matter most to the story. The background heroes have humorous scenes and help progress the story. Beyond that, the other protagonists have little to themselves. Some may see that as a flaw, but I didn't mind and I loved the results that came from their characters being pushed to the background.
The Villain
I'm relatively new to the work of Ben Mendelsohn. I've seen him in very few films and from what I've seen, I'm not a huge fan of the man. Especially when come to playing villains. Forget what I said about him in my "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" review. Now, the character's just alright, instead of all the wonderful praises I gave about his Orson Krennic. I didn't doubt his casting as Nolan Sorrento, but I thought he was a soft choice for such a methodical antagonist. Once again, I was DEAD wrong.
He may not go down as one of the best of all time, but Mendelsohn killed it as Nolan Sorrento. He took my breath away by how great of an antagonist he was. More often than not, I find characters like Sorrento one-dimensional and not very entertaining. The script, Spielberg's direction, and Mendelsohn's performance, made this antagonist compelling for a character that one might think is cliche. Mendelsohn's menace as Sorrento had a huge impact of how I viewed his character. That, and his line delivery and timing. Without a doubt, this character was an excellent foil for our protagonists. The very black and white portrayals of good and evil might get tiring one day. Call me old-fashioned, but it worked wonders for "Ready Player One".
The OAISIS/References
The selling point of this film, and its source material, has and always will be about the fact that it brings characters you know and love from all different media sources, and puts them all into one story. What an ingenious idea, but a challenging one too. If you're Steven Spielberg though, you got one heck of an advantage: you created a lot of this stuff. Clearly, Spielberg recognized that, and he ran with it. He took it so far, that almost every character in pop culture (at least) cameoed in this film. I saw this a second time to be sure, and I recognized a lot more characters than I did the first time. No spoilers, but my favorite of the references involved the Iron Giant. As you can tell from my title, this movie was made for me. I loved everything that I saw when it came to character showcases. Time to rave about the CGI now.
The CGI here, was some of the best CGI I've seen in a film, period! Talk about "virtual reality", everything in this film looked real, but had that touch that separated it from the real world. I was flabbergasted with it. Not (just) because it looked stunning, but because Spielberg hasn't done CGI this good in seven years. Each avatar looked distinct and cool in their own way, with vibrant colors to surround them. The OAISIS looked like a place that I'd spend time in. In case you ask, my avatar would look closer to Captain America, with the nickname being "Human Torch".
Score
Usually, Steven Spielberg goes to John Williams for composing the score to his films. Because Williams chose to work on Spielberg's awards-hopeful, "The Post", Alan Silvestri was hired and he composed a score on the level of his "Back to the Future" and "Captain America: The First Avenger" compositions.
In all honesty, I was actually disappointed in the score when I heard the theme. (This was when the first snippet was released; before the film had come out). After I watched the film for the first time, I actually loved it because it was exactly in line with the heart and spirit of the story. Full of that, and more. As all the best scores do, they elevated the entertainment of the film it accompanied. It may take a while before this score is considered one of the best, but I have a strong feeling that it just might reach that level one day.
Grade: A+
You may have gotten tired about me raving everything in this film. Maybe this film has issues. Maybe my love currently blinds me from seeing them. It's just that I hear stories about how mesmerized children, now adults, were when they saw a Spielberg film in theaters. Both times, I watched "Ready Player One" with a consistent smile on my face and eyes full of wonder. After my first time watching the film, I had the same feelings that I have now. To be sure, I went a second time and after realizing my feelings were the same, I assigned it this grade. This is a must see film. By a long shot, this is my favorite film of the year so far, which may not say a lot since I haven't seen a lot, but you can bet that come the end of December, I'll have this film in my five favorite films of the year list.
The second time I saw "Ready Player One", I saw it in 3D, my first 3D experience in a while. When I thought it'd look great, the 3D didn't make much of an improvement. Not a complete dismissal, but when seeing this in theaters, skip the 3D and just see it on a big screen.
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