There’s a section from 2012’s “Avengers” where Captain America very loudly tells the rest of the team that he understood a reference. That’s, more or less, how “Ready Player One” operates.
“Ready Player One” takes place in a rather depressed future. Picking up in 2045, the film is set in a world of mass poverty, with humanity facing numerous problems. However, much of the population gets away from these matters by way of a virtual reality gaming platform called the OASIS.
Not only do many people, escape their problems by way of the OASIS, they also search for a hidden treasure. That treasure is a massive ownership share of the OASIS company, which is valued at several billion dollars. In order to find it, the gamers, and entire companies, dig for clues related to the program’s late developer, Halliday (Mark Rylance).
Perhaps the biggest thing working against “Ready Player One” is the lack of any real stakes. See, one of the entities after the treasure is a ‘big bad corporation.’ You know what will happen if they get the treasure first? That company would put ads int he OASIS.
OK, don’t get me wrong, I get annoyed with pop-ups, too. But, really? That’s the big apocalypse that would happen? It’s not much for a plot to hinge on. Unfortunately, that’s really it when it comes to any motivation. There’s no real drive for the protagonists to complete their mission, as they have no other goals. It’s not like they’re out to improve the dilapidated world they live in.
The issues don’t stop there, either. On top of this treasure hunt holding little dramatic weight, the pop culture references thrown at the audience on a regular basis are hollow. It’s a shame, because there are actually cool things that pop on screen.
Seeing the DeLoreon from “Back to the Future” or a Gundam brought to life should be right up my alley. But it’s all so meaningless. Yeah they’re awesome, but that cool-factor is tied to the audience recognizing them from other good media.
The fact is, their presence in the movie is only for nostalgia bait. Even the characters themselves don’t have a connection to what’s on screen. The characters are obsessed with this stuff, not because they grew up with it, but because it’s all stuff they need to know to win a treasure hunt.
A prime example is a situation with the character Aech (Lena Waithe). In the OASIS, they’ve built a whole Iron Giant. An exact replica from the animated feature. So, did the character grow up with the movie? Was it a film they enjoyed watching with family? No, it’s simply something to be known as a clue for the hunt.
There’s no emotional connection the characters have with the nostalgic things on screen, so the audience doesn’t have much reason to relate to it, either. Sure, you can point and say, “I recognize that,” but that’s it. Again, cool to see this stuff on screen in lifelike fashion, but that doesn’t drive a movie.
Also not driving the movie is the lead character, Wade (Tye Sheridan). Also known as Parzival in the Oasis, Wade has a bad case of main character syndrome. He has such little personality, and it just seems like he advances as far as he does because he’s the protagonist.
Maybe the lead character should have been Samantha (Olivia Cooke), who actually has a deeper back story and wants to fight the corporation in the movie because she lost someone due to the company’s labor malpractices.
The main villain, meanwhile, is a bit hit and miss. Ben Mendelsohn portrays Sorrento, and he is in fact the traditional evil CEO. But Mendelsohn is good at playing that. He makes it work well enough, convincing as the big bad who wants to take over.
Visually, director Steven Spielberg knows what he’s doing. He provides a strong level of flair in recreating pop culture moments, bringing a few to life quite nicely. There is some definite eye candy on display. One just wishes the amount of CGI was dialed back a bit. That’s especially true with the characters’ game personas, which simply don’t look convincing.
“Ready Player One” is honestly a disappointment. There’s a lot of references here, but it doesn’t have the impact that other movies that reference pop culture do.
Look at “Kick-Ass” from 2010 or “Cabin in the Woods” from 2012. Those pictures were able to be their own thing and tell compelling stories while still having plenty of references that had an impact because that pop culture meant something to the characters.
No, this isn’t completely shameless pandering to nostalgia like that 2015 train wreck “Pixels” was. But still, I walked away from “Ready Player One” not feeling very engaged 2.5 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 