Ready Player One (2018)
Directed by Steven Spielberg

As iconic as the hero is (they usually are), and as humble as his beginnings were (why do they always lose their parents), we know he will triumph in the end (they usually do). Young man versus corporation that throws everything they have at him – assassins and killers make attempts on his life, steal his girl, kill his family/friends – wins the game against all odds. If you think I’m giving away the plot of “Ready Player One,” you’re sadly mistaken.

I’m talking about “Tron,” a movie made in 1982 with the exact same storyline, almost to a “T,” with a virtual video world, video villains, and a video game war fought in virtual reality. Though the special effects are light years ahead of the past, the story runs the same gamut for its hero. This would be where the reviewer stops writing and you the reader quit reading, turned off by the simplicity of the story; and if I or you did, you might miss out as I mention some incredible effects and “Easter Eggs” that both Spielberg and the story’s game designer create as a challenge. Think of “Ready Player One” as a massive game of Trivial Pursuit crossed with Peter Jackson’s “Return of the King.” The same massive battlefield climaxes both films, whose logistics must have driven the special effects artists mad by including so many characters, it’s impossible to count.

Of course, this film harkens back to an early Steven Spielberg, when he and Robert Zemekis (whom he also pays homage) made “Roger Rabbit” (Amblin Studios) also packed with recognizable characters. He never does anything small or trivial. The game world in this film is the most complex, most elaborate, and most involved level of special effects ever put on film. The landscape is so vast that it would take at least three or four views of this film to capture even part of the detail Spielberg inserted into the gaming world. So that while the plotline is very simple, its execution is not; far from it. In this case, you go to see how incredible and imaginative Spielberg can be… and he is.

Based on the 2011 novel by Ernst Cline, “Ready Player One” takes its title from the gaming world when the system is loaded. In the old days, you waited for the program to load and then the screen would announce, “Ready, Player One.” Just as iconic as “You’ve got mail” was to AOL, “Ready Player One” put Atari on the map and is a crucial part of this homage to video games and 1980’s era movies. Characters from video games pop up all over the place and I defy you to find and recognize them all, they come at you that fast. In 3D, it becomes a tidal wave of detail, impossible to decipher in one sitting.

Here’s the story synopsis as it unfolds. The future is upon us and it’s as bleak as it was in “Elysium” where the majority of the “lower classes” live in “stacks” of trailer homes to make use of depleted space. Of course, these locals are about as plausible as Mad Max would be for our future (EV’s kind of pulled the rug from that). No American would ever live under such squalid conditions. However, we’re led to believe that due to climate change, corporations run things and the government, if there is one, has little to no power (though they do make use of the police, twice).

Protagonist Wade Watts – who goes by the avatar Parzival – (Tye Sheridan – X-men Apocalypse) like so many in the stacks, lives to play inside the Oasis – a massive virtual reality world where people live their lives through their avatars. Here, also, are his friends – a cast of irregulars right out of the “Goonies” – who give him moral support when it comes to finding romance. The “girl” of interest is Art3mis (Olivia Cook), a slim slick virtual “kick-ass” player – his female counterpart. They race around the landscape in the hopes of finding “Eggs” left by the original game designer, James Halliday (Mark Rylance, BFG). Of course, they’re up against the corporate bad guy who tries to stop them at every turn. Despite sending killers in both reality and in the game world, Parzival prevails.

My favorite scene is – during one egg hunt – when they enter the virtual movie set of “The Shining,” duplicated down to the smallest detail. As one of the trials, they had to search for a clue within the film’s construct. Wandering around the sets trigger moments from the film – everything from waves of blood, to those bothersome twins. Spielberg paid special homage to Kubrick using this trope, as this scene wasn’t in the novel. (He finished Kubrick’s last project “AI” – a look at a different vision of the future.)

Spielberg’s 175 million dollar gargantuan is full of amazing special effects but very short on story depth. Still, I wouldn’t have missed seeing this film in 3D as it is the most effects-laden movie ever made. Regard it as the best ride at the amusement park. You’ve waited in line and then you ride it. When you get off, you tell your friends how much fun you had. But each time you ride it, you come to the realization that it’s a three-minute thrill and not much more. No surprises here except incredible effects which you’ve never seen in any movie… until the next one comes out.

“Ready Player One” is a fun cinematic romp but no great soul searching or even deep romantic scenes. The emphasis is on the virtual world, a shiny pretty jewel that rests inside a shiny pretty box. Minus John Williams, Alan Silvestri delivers a competent score that sounds vaguely like “Back to the Future,” quite often. Whether he did this on purpose or not, Spielberg also squeezes in some popular songs from the era in the same way “Guardians of the Galaxy” did. The sweeping camera moves are all computer generated so not much for the cinematographer to do except when they leave the virtual world and have to act on sets outside it. Michael Kahn returns to edit as he’s done with every single film the auteur ever made. The pacing is quick and ending comes after a protracted series of hurdles Parzival completes. The 3D version was fun to experience as I knew it would be. I’ve a terrible feeling Amblin is about to kiss 175 million dollars goodbye. With so little meat and all frosting, the audience may find other bill of fare more satisfying than this rather fluffy cotton candy piece of filmmaking.