Ready Player One Review

I'm just gonna be straight up and say this: if you like this movie, you're a nerd. Heck, even if you don't like it, but you make it through the whole movie (it's really long), you're a nerd. You are such a nerd that if you watched this movie and the local bully caught you, he would yank out your headphones and scream in your face, as loud as he could:

"NERRRRRRRRRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. In all seriousness, this is truly one of the nerdiest films I've ever watched. In fact, I think I've only felt more like a nerd one time before watching Ready Player One: that time was when I read Ready Player One. So I'd say I am a nerd, but not a turbo-nerd. I do love franchises like the Marvel universe, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of Rings, Dark Knight, Jurassic Park, Planet of the Apes (the new ones), Stranger Things, most of what Bad Robot has made, and various other nerdy stuff I haven't mentioned because I don't want to barrage you with too much of that stuff (you know, more than I already did). However, I just don't get what's so great about stuff like Star Trek, Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes (the old ones), most of DC's stuff, and anything (I mean ANYTHING) related to anime. But enough about how geeky I am, let's talk about Ready Player One.

So yeah, it was a book, Spielberg made it into a movie, and considering how challenging of a book it is to adapt, he did a pretty good job. The movie's not perfect, but it is very enjoyable to watch. Although it is not very faithful to the novel (one of the main characters who died in the book is left unscathed by the end of the movie), It does an amazing job of capturing the feel and essence of the book. The movie can be thrilling, hilarious, and even insightful. It's a much better adaptation than another big budget film that came out this year, A Wrinkle in Time (and boy, do I have a lot to talk about concerning THAT ONE). 

However, like I basically said at the beginning of this review, this flick is not for everyone. If you can't stand pop culture references, get out. Save yourself. If you hate 80s pop music more than anything else (I'm talking about stuff like Van Halen, Hall and Oates, Tears for Fears. I can tell some of you readers cringed so much just now.), spare your eardrums. If you hate 80s movies, leave this review. If you hate movies in general, I don't really know why you are reading this blog, but you will also hate this. If you love all of the above, you'll probably like this. But if you don't like any of those, you can stop reading this, because this ain't a movie for you.

The movie has plenty of great aspects about it. All of the performances are good, and the dialogue is  well written too. The visuals worked since all the scenes that required CG took place inside a VR video-game. If those visuals were placed in a live-action setting, I'm not sure I would think they were good. But that's not what it was trying to do, so I thought they were fine. Although the plot diverged from the book a lot, it still worked and didn't fall apart at any time. The score's not bad, but I honestly think a more techno or even 8 bit score would've been a better fit. Kinda like Wreck-it-Ralph's score maybe? Just a nitpick really. Just like the book, I enjoyed its critique of digital and pop culture. It criticizes the obsession that some people develop for these things while also showing a deep appreciation for what good can come from those things and the enjoyment that it brings people.

There weren't too many cons in my opinion. The main problem for me was that it's roughly 30 mins too long. I didn't think it was slow or boring at any point, but at a certain point, I was like, "Ok, I like this movie, but WRAP IT UP!!!!". Maybe it was just because of how late it was when I finished watching. I don't know. However, I like most movies to be 2 hours or less. Also, the characters didn't have as much development as I hoped they would, but that might be an issue with the book more than the movie. To be perfectly honest, I can't remember the book developing any of the characters more than the movie did, with the exception of Wade. But he's the narrator, so he had to be developed no matter what. I just wish the movie developed him a lot more than it did. Those are really the only big issues I had, though.

Score: 8/10

I mainly thought it was a really fun, non-demanding Sci-Fi Comedy Thriller. Not Spielberg's best, but that's honestly a very high bar to pass. It is certainly worth checking out.

Unless you hate 80s stuff.

Then you probably shouldn't check it out.