I have a love/hate relationship with the latest Steven Spielberg film, “Ready Player One.” The novel, written by Ernest Cline, is amazing and one of my favorite books that I’ve read in the past five or so years, however, I feel that the film just doesn't live up to it.
The story follows the main character, Wade Watts, in Columbus, Ohio of 2044. After multiple huge historical events that are briefly touched on, the human population began to search for an outlet, an escape from reality. Cue the creation of Oasis, an immersive virtual reality video game.
James Halliday is the creator of Oasis, but dies several decades after his huge success. His death is the start of a search for three keys that lead to Halliday’s easter egg, which, when found, will give the finder rights to the entire Oasis and Halliday’s shares in the company.
Fighting against an evil corporation leader, Wade Watts and his friends hunt for the keys and fight in a battle similar to the idea of the struggle for net neutrality.
“Ready Player One” idolizes nerd culture, which makes it fun for the massive audience that nerd culture appeals to, but it relies too heavily on nostalgia and major references.To top it off, instead of making a point to build a strong story and realistic characters, “Ready Player One” focuses on the visuals and humor.
The only aspects of this film that I enjoyed are the casting, visuals, humor, and nerd culture references. One good thing that I can say about this movie is that every character looks pretty much how they should look; for instance, Wade isn’t unnaturally attractive. He looks like a nerd, which is so refreshing.
Other than that, the story had multiple plot holes, there were no developed rules about how the Oasis worked, the cliché teen love story between two of the main characters made me roll my eyes multiple times, and I felt like there is a more important message that the writers missed.
One of the things that bugged me the most when I was watching this movie for the second time is how the real world interacts with players who are in the Oasis.
At the beginning of the movie some of the equipment that Wade owns is explained, but there are also a ton of scenes with random people who don’t have this equipment and who are actively participating in the same physical movements.
There are just a lot of things that don’t make sense about how this video game actually works.
This would not have bothered me if the story were written better; I would’ve thought, “Yeah, the writers didn’t explain the details of the Oasis, but the story’s amazing, so that’s probably what the writers wanted to focus on.”
The story is crap, though, so that’s not what I thought.
I cannot think of anything more annoying than when movies have an overrated love story plot about two teen characters who fall in "love" after meeting three days before. What’s worse is when the movie decides to emphasize this love story plot so much that it basically overshadows any other important, more significant, message or purpose.
Guess what "Ready Player One" did? Both of these super annoying things.
Moral of the story: the book is always better than the movie.