READY PLAYER ONE
(2018)
Tagline: Accept your reality... or fight for a better one.
(Action, Adventure, Wait Is That Chucky?) [PG-13]
Well, here's a better question. Who cares? Halliday's contest is vitally important. I mean, it's nothing less than a war for control of the future. But this Parzival? He's not even clanned up. He's alone. We have an army.
Well, here's a better question. Who cares? Halliday's contest is vitally important. I mean, it's nothing less than a war for control of the future. But this Parzival? He's not even clanned up. He's alone. We have an army.
This is another one of those movies based on a book where you are probably better off just using this simple principle. The book isn’t
the movie. The movie may have the same name as the book, and be loosely based
on the book, but it’s not the book, and shouldn’t in any way be compared to the
book. If you have that down you are all set to enjoy things for what they are.
Starring Olivia Cooke (probably best known for voicing The
Loch Ness Monster in an episode of AXE COP because AXE COP freakin rules) and
Tye Sheridan (probably best known for being Scott Summers in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
) as well as a bunch of other solid actors and actresses.
From day one READY PLAYER ONE promised a billion cameos and
references to pop culture, boy does this thing deliver everything from Michael
Jackson’s Thriller to a blended Iron Giant -Terminator reference. It’s going to
basically be impossible to see everything the first time you watch this.
Storyline-wise is where the rip-offs, unfortunately, start to happen. The world
sucks (remember I said this) so now it’s time to let everyone enjoy the Oasis
(no not the band, are you kidding me), a giant VR world where basically every
pop-culture reference seems to be hanging out (only the color-less drab, non-speaking
version). So yeah the entire movie is basically the big-market scene from VALERIAN,
mixed in with a bit of TRON, and more obviously JOHNNY MNEMONIC, but with the
color pallet of SKY CAPTAIN drowning in blue and gray. You also get some oddly placed horror sequences
that seem like they were just crammed into the movie as a cover for the actual
plot. No wait, that is exactly what happens. Overall the paint-by-numbers villain
is less interesting than either of his henchmen. Our heroes are fun and worthy
of rooting for and still managing to follow the mandatory “RUNAWAYSish” diversity
rules of this era.
Overall READY PLAYER ONE is over-hyped but fun. For me, it’s a
movie I won’t be running out to buy, but watching on a streaming service is pretty much a must. I’d skip the
theatrical run if you are not already super interested (this contradicts the standard rating definition slightly). You won’t be able to
see everything going on anyway. If anything this is a lesson in how not to do
cameos. Kind of like inviting the Geek Galaxy to the party and not letting
them get more than 3 seconds of face time, and telling them they can’t actually
say anything when they get there. Production-wise you gotta give it to the
effects team.
In the final analysis, this thing is just flat-out solid. So in spite of the issues I have pointed out…. I gotta give this one a 5 out of 7.
In the final analysis, this thing is just flat-out solid. So in spite of the issues I have pointed out…. I gotta give this one a 5 out of 7.
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