One time, when my family went out to eat, I ordered something that sounded good, but when I started eating it, I was super disappointed. Since I was eating on my parent’s dime, I tried to finish it, but I just couldn’t. Now, I’m not usually a quitter (especially when it comes to food) but guys, I struck again. I committed one of the cardinal sins of cinema… I left the theater before a movie was over 😬
Ready Player One? Apparently I wasn’t. I’d seen the trailers for Steven Spielberg’s latest film and there was a significant amount of hype surrounding its release. I figured I’d get ahead of the curve and see it on Thursday to avoid hearing anyone else’s reviews, so my own opinion wouldn’t be tainted. It was a last-minute decision, but I made it into my seat just as the last preview started playing. Cue the lights, here we go… Any film that opens with Van Halen’s “Jump” has the potential to be terrific. But as soon as Tye Sheridan started narrating, I lost interest. The year is 2045, and as our protagonist, Wade (Sheridan) explains, life isn’t great. Humanity’s seen some hard times, but lucky for them, mastermind James Halliday created the Oasis – a virtual reality where people can escape the hardships of their real lives and be whoever they want to be. Hidden in the Oasis is an easter egg granted to whoever collects all three keys from winning various races and challenges. The grand prize? Halliday’s entire share of the company (half a trillion dollars!!) and complete control of the Oasis. As the film continues, we meet Wade’s best/only friend “H” and we learn of other major players in both the real and virtual world. At this point, the only thing that was keeping me in the theater was the soundtrack – major props to the music directors. Other than that, I couldn’t get into the story or relate to the characters. The screenwriters tried a lot of humor that felt forced and fell flat. But that’s not only to blame the writers, the actors’ execution of the entire script was borderline cringe worthy. The action sequences – though impressive from a technological point of view – were confusing and hard to watch. Should I have given it more of a chance than 37 minutes? Probably. Am I being to harsh? Maybe. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but I think it boiled down to the fact that I felt like I was in a video game and I just didn't like it. If you’re into video games or fantasy movies, maybe Ready Player One is for you. But for me, it missed the mark. *P.S. I also can't judge how closely the film followed the book. If you are looking for a review of the ~entire~ film... here's a good one from Entertainment Weekly! Comments are closed.
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