MOVIE REVIEW: Ready, Player One
(Toccata - Mannheim Steamroller)
Ernest Cline's 2011 love note to video games and '80s culture is not without its fair share of both praise and criticism, but no one has argued about the scope of the book itself. It's absolutely vast. You can check out my review of the book here.
TL;DR? I loved it for what it was, and forgave it its trespasses into tropehood.
Then, in 2017, trailers for the movie started to land on the internet. People who had already read the book got very, very excited.
Then they got very, very scared, because the book covered a lot of ground that would be hard to cover on the silver screen.
Now, seven years after the book's release, the movie has finally arrived. Should you take up Anorak's challenge and become a Gunter?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes.
THE LONG VERSION:
I don't care for the way that most movies disclose themselves so greatly in trailers. Very little is left to the imagination by the time the movie is launched, and Ready, Player One was no exception. In this case, however, I'm rather glad that happened, because it showed me one of the great truths to the movie and kept me from absolutely hating it. That truth is this:
This movie is not a love note to '80s video games and '80s culture. It's just a love note to video games in general...and sort of forgets about culture.
One of the things that made the book so incredible was that those of us who grew up in that era felt like the book had been written for us. Back then, we were outsides, pariahs. Apart. RP1 the movie rolls right over the top of that and gives the movie to gamers everywhere, and while I can understand why Spielberg and Cline chose to do that, it still feels like a bit of a betrayal. At the risk of sounding...bitter, modern gamers didn't have to endure anything for their hobby. They were simply born into an era when it was acceptable and popular.
That aside, if you go into the movie with the understanding that it's no longer targeted at the '80s, it's an extremely enjoyable movie. I'll hit on the high level stuff really quick:
Ernest Cline's 2011 love note to video games and '80s culture is not without its fair share of both praise and criticism, but no one has argued about the scope of the book itself. It's absolutely vast. You can check out my review of the book here.
TL;DR? I loved it for what it was, and forgave it its trespasses into tropehood.
Then, in 2017, trailers for the movie started to land on the internet. People who had already read the book got very, very excited.
Then they got very, very scared, because the book covered a lot of ground that would be hard to cover on the silver screen.
Now, seven years after the book's release, the movie has finally arrived. Should you take up Anorak's challenge and become a Gunter?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes.
THE LONG VERSION:
I don't care for the way that most movies disclose themselves so greatly in trailers. Very little is left to the imagination by the time the movie is launched, and Ready, Player One was no exception. In this case, however, I'm rather glad that happened, because it showed me one of the great truths to the movie and kept me from absolutely hating it. That truth is this:
This movie is not a love note to '80s video games and '80s culture. It's just a love note to video games in general...and sort of forgets about culture.
One of the things that made the book so incredible was that those of us who grew up in that era felt like the book had been written for us. Back then, we were outsides, pariahs. Apart. RP1 the movie rolls right over the top of that and gives the movie to gamers everywhere, and while I can understand why Spielberg and Cline chose to do that, it still feels like a bit of a betrayal. At the risk of sounding...bitter, modern gamers didn't have to endure anything for their hobby. They were simply born into an era when it was acceptable and popular.
That aside, if you go into the movie with the understanding that it's no longer targeted at the '80s, it's an extremely enjoyable movie. I'll hit on the high level stuff really quick:
- STORY: The story remains the same at a very high level. There's a contest to win control of the OASIS, along with a crap-ton of money, and you have to solve riddles and find three keys in order to win. Parzival is present, as are Art3mis, Eich, Shoto, and Daisho. The evil IOI corporation is also present, competing against them. The OASIS remains a giant, go-anywhere, do-anything sandbox. Aaaaand....that's sort of it. If you've read the books, put away your preconceptions about the rest of the story.
- A/V: The movie is gorgeous, and a masterclass in what can be done with CGI, Cinematography, and...well, movies. Spielberg's fingerprints are all over this one.
- CHARACTERS: Wade, Samantha, and Eich are all well-fleshed out. Virtually everyone else is a throwaway, with the exception of James Halladay, who smells quite strongly of Garth Algar. His performance is masterful on several levels, and a little too-close-to-home for some of us. Also, TJ Miller needs to retire from film and live off of his Deadpool earnings.
- There is SO MUCH going on. Too much, most of the time. It's easy to get lost in all of the fan service and visual easter eggs. I'm really looking forward to the YouTube clips where people point out all of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it stuff in this movie. Unfortunately, it's hugely distracting on the fly, and most of it is wasted. You could watch this movie several times and still not catch half of what's going on.
- The extent to which Ogg is cut out of the story is frustrating as hell.
- ADVENTURE for the Atari 2600 does NOT work the way it's shown in the movie. At all. Period. I've been chided by friends that I saw the movie with about this already, but it really pisses me off. This is a movie about video games, made for gamers, with call-backs to a lot of great stuff. Knowing this, you can't cock up one of the key moments in the film and not expect anyone to notice. The Magic Dot isn't where the movie depicts it, for starters. It's in a different part of the catacombs completely, and you can't get to it without the bridge. You can't even get TO the Dot on the easier gameplay modes.
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