OD'ing on OASIS

READY PLAYER ONE (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I don't know if "Ready Player One" holds the record for the most pop-culture references ever in a
single movie but it is probably high on that meter. Based on a best-selling book by Ernest Cline, the film is smothered in pop culture trivia and references to movies and video games, from "The Shining" to "Saturday Night Fever" to Atari 2600's "Adventure" to King Kong chasing a Delorean from "Back to the Future," well, you get the idea. It is one of Steven Spielberg's finest pop action-fantasy movies and, though it is not an Orwellian warning about virtual reality, there is a subtext here about favoring escapism over real-life and vice versa- a subject that is the reality of Spielberg's own filmmaking career.

Set in a dystopian future (what movie is not set in a dystopia nowadays), circa 2045, the setting is a Cleveland, Ohio slum known as the Stacks where trailers are actually stacked on top of each other. Wade (Tye Sheridan) is, at first glance, an emotionally mute young orphan living with his overbearing aunt and her less-than-loving boyfriend. Wade's obsession, as is most of Cleveland's, is hooking into the virtual reality world of OASIS, a place of cityscapes, endless highways and neon-lit clubs where anything can happen. Whether it is playing a game involving a race to find an Easter Egg where King Kong tries to smash you into smithereens while Akira's red motorbike and the Batmobile from 60's TV show "Batman" flashes by us, or trying to find clues by literally tapping into the world of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," Wade using the avatar of Parzifal is unlikely to be bored in this fantasy world. He admits he is in love with the pink-haired Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and is hoping that that love is reciprocated. There are also three keys to obtain in the OASIS, divulged by the late creator of this digital environment, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), and all three lead to some Easter Egg that will give the winner full control of this world. Of course, the love-him-hate-him CEO Nolan Sorrento (swiftly and effectively played by Ben Mendelsohn) has other plans that may prove hazardous to a video gamer's health. Mr. Sorrento has no qualms when it comes to real-life violence and Wade, an expert on everything about OASIS, is a threat because he just might get that Easter Egg.

"Ready Player One" has a dense narrative with various colorful characters and many eye-popping visuals that rival just about any other movie about virtual reality I've seen - this one resembles a video game but it is never static on screen, thank goodness. It feels like a video game world I might want to visit with my own personalized avatar. This OASIS is engaging and fun, and a little dangerous but never less than an adventure in its own right. I can also say Spielberg never makes it feel overstuffed and it is never undercooked (though the CGI-heavy climax where Mechagodzilla battles Iron Giant can get almost overbearingly Transformers-like but not quite). But be warned: unlike his "Minority Report" film, "Ready Player One" is game on for showing the distinction between real-life and fantasy but it is not a righteous moral tale. It is clear that Spielberg and his characters want to be in the OASIS; the real world itself is just too overbearing. Even in a digital world, emotions still come to the surface. Wade slowly builds his emotions back when it comes to compassion, for the loss of his parents and for seeing how Art3mis's father suffered while OD'ing on OASIS. Those are the perils of virtual reality, where it overtakes your own reality and you become a slave to it, financially and otherwise.

I have very few qualms about "Ready Player One" and I caught quite a few pop culture references, though I am certain I missed many. What is most spirited about the film are the fun, sympathetic, likable characters, primarily the heroes of the film. Tye Sheridan's Wade takes some getting used to yet everyone else in the cast give superb performances, including a memorable Olivia Cooke as Art3mis and as Samantha, a tough, emotionally reserved girl born with a facial birthmark who is sensitive to gamers getting carried away with OASIS; Lena Waithe who is the real comic relief as Helen in reality and Aech, a tall, muscular mechanic who has a thing for the Iron Giant that she keeps in a virtual garage; Mark Rylance's almost enchanting take on James Halliday, a soft-spoken inventor who sees greed corrupting his digital universe; the curator and former business partner of Halliday's, Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg, almost perfecting an American accent) who is almost as heavenly a presence towards the end of the film as Halliday is, and many more.

Raiding 80's movies like Buckaroo Banzai, John Hughes flicks, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and exporting great rock and roll songs from the likes of Duran Duran and Joan Jett, "Ready Player One" has everything an 80's nerd might want and more. It OD's on 80's nostalgia but it never sacrifices its own story to allow only kickass nerdisms and out-of-this-world action sequences only Spielberg could craft with finesse and spills, thrills and chills (the Overlook sequence from "The Shining" has to be seen to be believed). The real world is harsh, the virtual is an almost cosmic-like adventure. Spielberg suggests that virtual reality will be humanity's eternal escape yet warns us not leave our emotions unchecked.