Ready Player One movie review (Non-spoiler)
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Story:
It was almost a refreshing feeling walking into a movie and figuring out the plot from watching it than from the trailers. The story of Ready Player One is essentially a video game, with different challenges that need to be completed in order to reach the end, and each challenge was different from the last and a blast to watch. The epic race from the trailers wastes no time in giving viewers a monstrous scene of mayhem and excitement. There were plenty of unexpected turns throughout, and seeing the characters figure out the puzzles and work through what obstacles they came across were engaging to watch, and unexpectedly tense at times for a movie I thought was going to be simply fun. The story ends up becoming more emotional as we learn more about the game's creator, and events in the real world end up being just as entertaining as the events that take place within the virtual reality. The story was simple yet complex with many events and mishaps transpiring through the movie, and the story never disappoints.
Action scenes/cgi:
The action scenes in this film are a spectacle to watch, and even though there are typically dozens of things going on at once it never feels like there's too much being thrown in your face. The CGI in the film is also near perfect for what it is trying to capture; the entire virtual world is made up of CGI but it never feels like the film is too CGI heavy and the virtual world looks adequately computer generated in a way in which the CGI works by not being too realistic. The final battle ends up being the largest action set piece of course, and also the best in the film, with plenty of references and cameos to make it even more fun.
Characters:
For a movie that I thought was just going to be a fun adventure, it caught me off guard with its depth, and the characters were no short of a surprise with how much I ended up liking them. Wade Watts was a great protagonist and I loved watching him through the film, even outside of the virtual world which goes for all the other characters as well; he was fun, energetic, and someone we could relate to as an average gamer. Art3mis was also great, and a fantastic female lead who stood as independent, strong, and held her own with several great scenes. Wade's friend Aech was actually a character I thought would be a villain from the trailer I watched, which showed him simply as this ogre causing mayhem, but he ended up being a great source of laughs. Daito and Sho end up being more sidelined until further into the film, but both do not feel out of place. Sorrento is a villain I had a great time watching, through all his schemes and tricks, and his henchman, i-R0k, ended up being one of the highlights of the film for me, and his final scene made me feel bad for him. My favorite character coming out of the film though was the creator of the virtual world, James Halliday, who is presented as an awkward, albeit sweet and funny man whom I felt bad for as we were shown his regrets and his missed chances in life.
Overall thoughts:
I cannot think of enough ways to talk about this movie, and already I feel like I have not done it enough, and probably never will. Ready Player One took me by utter surprise and I walked out of the theater beaming from what I had seen; I had a blast with the movie, and felt real stakes for the characters which is new after an age of franchises where you know characters will survive to star in the sequel, but the characters in this film felt like they were in real danger. The references themselves never felt stuffed in either, they were put in the movie organically and fit when they were up front, but otherwise they would be background spot-ems that never distracted too hard from what the movie was showing us. The OASIS itself, the virtual world the characters inhabited, is something we truly do not see a huge amount of when it comes to locations and places when we're told in the beginning the types of things people can do there, but what we do get is phenomenal and it is a world I would never hesitate to enter if it were real. The movie has a great characters that I fell in love with, a setting and story that kept me engaged from opening to credits, and I could not recommend this movie enough. Ready Player One was more than just a fun movie, but a deeply enthralling film with a message about living life and a drive to ensure that movie goers leave the film happy, which I did. I only hope now that a "Ready Player Two" ends up being put into production so we can get more of this world and its characters!
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