Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the Steven Spielberg book-adaption of Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline. When James Halliday, creator of the virtual-reality world The Oasis dies suddenly he has left a video containing information about a potential easter egg he has hidden inside his very game which will give the finder control over all of the Oasis; When dictating organization IOI threatens to kill teenage boy Wade Watts he knows he must find the egg before it gets into the wrong hands.

How Was The Cast?

This adaptation the truly amazing novel written by acclaimed Sci-Fi author Ernest Cline stars Tye Sheridan as the geeky teenage main character, Parzival also known as Wade Watts, Olivia Cook stars as the supposed ‘geek girl’ of the film, Art3mis also known as Samantha and Simon Pegg as the assistant creator to the Oasis, Og the wizard also known as Morrow with well known actor Mark Rylance taking on the important role of James Halliday full creator and controller of the Oasis. As I said we see Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life, Mud etc.) take the wheel for the main character mostly known as Wade Watts or as his avatar goes, Parzival. Considering how geeky and funny this role was supposed to be Sheridan never convinced me enough that he was the right choice for Wade, taking the novel into perspective Wade the character is a almost too smart, geeky, overweight loser who happens to find pleasure in the Oasis, this was a very well-written character, but taking perspective back into the film there was no magic for Sheridan to tread in leaving him mostly in the dust; However Sheridan did happen to pull a few stray comical nostalgic laughs into the audience which may or may not be quite what die-hard 80’s fans are looking for. Secondly driving the female side of the group is actress Olivia Cooke (Thoroughbreads, Ouija: Origin of Evil) performing Samantha or Art3mis as her avatar goes. The real problem with this was that she was more believable in the fake virtual world than the real world and without any good dialogue to save her she is stuck in a total trance for the entire film as a human, disregarding the real world however as an avatar she was reasonably solid with a good sense of video-game adaption talent and strong female lead perspective to enhance the film a little more. Playing assistant creator of the Oasis known as Morrow or Og the wizard is well-known celebrated and comedic actor Simon Pegg. Pegg (Mission: Impossible franchise) Creating more star-power within the film was definitely a boost for the movie, however like many other films he did not have enough to work with comically or even overall despite a couple decent twists performed with his character there was nothing of substance to create more friction around the storyline or plot and ultimately not enough for masterful director Steven Spielberg. Playing the small but deeply important character in the film, James Halliday the shy creator of the Oasis is another well-known actor, Mark Rylance. Deeply the best part about the cast was Rylance turning his small bits and pieces of dialogue to something of actual importance, soothing the theater with a convincing American accent and occasionally very comical and funny at times giving the director something to work off of that is not fake. (hence the video game concept)

Quality

Directing the special-effect driven adaptation of wonderful virtual novel is about the best filmmaker Steven Spielberg who happens to be quite a difficult choice for this video-game/movie nostalgia thrill ride. As I explained before Spielberg (Jurassic Park, Jaws, Poltergeist, Indiana Jones franchise) is directing the film which may not have been the best choice as crazy as it may seem, however this proves multiple times that it has his thrill rides, visual candy and pure Spielbergian entertainment which does occasionally prove better than the lack of fun produced by director Spielberg. Creation wise Spielberg did give nostalgia to film geeks, but never went to his full potential as he went to in many of his other amazing films; Jaws, Jurassic Park and Poltergeist with pure scares and classic acting while Indiana Jones proves classic entertainment while giving solid special effects and thrills along the way. Concluding on the director’s standpoint Steven Spielberg might have been a true 80’s geek, but he was not fun or hip enough to direct this pure popcorn flick settling for a decently entertaining, but never full potential film. Reported to have a 175M+ production budget is pretty impressive for the massive amount of CGI used within the entire span of the film, a thing that makes video-game adaptations have a little strength at least is within the special effects which was very true for this film, while giving mild thrills and entertainment most of all Ready Player One gives a solid adaptation of the Oasis from book pages onto screen giving enough visual eye-candy to overcome the thin-story, plot, sometimes muddled directing and only decent acting from the cast. Reverting to storyline and plot standpoint things were much, much different and with Spielberg at the wheel this was a giant belly flop; The real problem for me was that I loved the novel so so much that it was almost heartbreaking that there was not a single thing similar to the treasured book which can go both ways, this was mixed, however creative it may seem to stray from the book it did not go past the novel fans’ heads making it increasingly difficult to watch. On the good side of things it did manage to thrill enough for non-fans of the book to be watchable which is why it can go both ways, this clearly went both which was a major loss and gain for director Steven Spielberg.

Aging ‘The Oasis’

There was countless violent and unneeded scenes in this film and I am here to talk about it. Starting with many action/horror sequences was a re-creation of Stanley Kubrick’s horror flick The Shining which includes a prolonged sequence of blood flooding through the mansion, a naked woman comes out of the bathtub and turns into a gruesome zombie/creature and ends up chasing them with an axe, in a comic like jump scare an alien pops out of an avatar’s body with blood as in the Sci-Fi/Horror franchise Alien, in another comic jump scare Chucky the serial killer doll slashed an enemy with a knife, other than that there is many video-game like action sequences including CGI-fueled special effects for explosions, gun fires, violent car chases, King Kong and T-rex’s smash buildings etc. Including a reasonable amount of bad language with multiple uses of s..t, a-hole, b..ch, d..kweed, douche bag, balls, damn, god damn, oh my god, pissed, insults such as ghetto trash, noob etc. and one use of f..king. Summing up any sexuality there was more focusing on slashy, bloody explosive action sequences despite a naked woman coming out of a bathtub (top of butt shown), a mild couple second moment where a woman on an oasis console mimicking pole dancing and a mild, avatars where skimpy outfits occasionally, Art3mis touches Parzival’s private regions seductively, Parzival relates to Art3mis as hot, and a few big kisses.

Spielbergian Sci-Fi Showdown

Ready Player One 70% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 14+

Minority Report 95% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Ready Player One 70% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Minority Report 95% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

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