Although extremely predictable, watching Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One was one of the most distinct and incredible experiences I’ve had in a movie theater. Based on the book by the same title, the film, which takes place in 2045, follows a boy named Wade who lives a difficult life in Columbus, Ohio and his journey to find three keys that lead to an Easter Egg hidden in the virtual world of the OASIS. The OASIS is a virtual reality video game that nearly all inhabitants of Earth partake in, so much so that success in the game translates to some type of success in the real world. Wade must beat the money hungry IOI Corporation in finding the Easter Egg, which grants the victor control of the OASIS and all of the creators’ stocks in the game.
The film didn’t really know what it wanted to be. There was profanity, but also cheesy dialogue about love that came off as childish. The film also hinted at some religious comparisons, which I found to be thought-provoking: Halliday created a world in which participants worship him, and there’s even a headline of an article that says something along the lines of “Halliday playing God.” Furthermore, Wade is worshipped as he plays through the game and is the only character to meet Halliday, but not before “dying,” then coming back (sound familiar?) and finding the final Easter Egg. The main antagonist used to work for Halliday, but is the cause of Wade’s initial virtual death, and the film was even released on Easter weekend.
The plethora of references to popular culture throughout the decades is thrown at audiences at a rapid-fire rate, at times lingering on the screen and, at other points, overcrowding it. There aren’t just visual references either: the soundtrack is a collection of hits that coincide with the decades represented with the visual references. Remove the references and quirky adventures throughout pop culture history, and you are left with a band of flat characters in a played-out good vs. evil, people vs. corporation, fun vs. business story. This is not to say that the content of the film isn’t interesting, though. The setting is unlike many other films, and the contrast and comparison of having a life in the real world and having a life in the virtual world is engaging and raises some hard-to-answer questions. On the surface, it may seem like the virtual world is better, especially in the bleak world of 2045. However, Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, commends living in the real world “because reality is real.” This speaks to the world’s blinding obsession with virtual reality that even the creator of THE virtual world of the film is dismissing. Art3mis/Samantha’s character (who I believe was very underutilized and trope-ish) also comments on the nature of the virtual world when she says, “You only know what I want you to know. You only see what I want you to see. That’s what you’re in love with.”
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