By JASON GUYER
Another avatar movie? Oh wait, not that ³Avatar.² Still have to wait awhile
on those sequels, but look out James Cameron, here comes Steven Spielberg
with an adapted version of another avatar-style adventure.
The most common type and use of the avatar term is the gaming avatar. ³Ready
Player One² has been built up for over a year, a film that in essence is
suppose to be Spielberg¹s return to cinematic glory.
The science fiction action-adventure film ³Ready Player One² is based on
Ernest Cline¹s bestseller of the same name. Personally, I have not read the
book, so I will concentrate on the film version only.
³Ready Player One,² the film, is set in 2045 with the world near chaos and
collapse, and finding salvation in a large-scale virtual reality video game,
the OASIS.
The creator of the OASIS is the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday,
played by Mark Rylance. Upon Halliday¹s death, he leaves his fortune in its
entirety to the first person to find a digital Easter egg. The Easter egg is
hidden somewhere in the OASIS and requires three keys to acquire it.
As the world is enthralled in this race for gaming glory, an unlikely young
hero emerges. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is thrown into a high-octane,
virtual reality treasure hunt.
³Ready Player One² is a film that is hard to judge the acting in. The two
main characters of Wade Watts and Samantha Cook (Olivia Cooke) are hard to
judge because of their avatar counterparts, Watts¹ Parzival and Cook¹s
Art3mis.
Their avatars have the most screen time as ³Ready Player One,² for the
majority of the film, is a CGI movie. It does jump back and forth from CGI
to live action just as the film and in movie game switches from avatar to
character.
I would unofficially say somewhere near 70 percent of the film is CGI, and
this makes it very hard to judge or critique acting skill.
I will say if you have seen either Sheridan in ³X-Men: Apocalypse² or Cooke
as Emma Decody on the television show ³Bates Motel,² then you have some
idea. I never thought the actors or their talent reached beyond what has
been seen of them in the past.
The real treat of ³Ready Player One² is Spielberg in the directing
chair. Now, I would not say ³Ready Player One² is Spielberg¹s greatest work
or biggest cinematic achievement.I would say his greatest work is ³Schindler¹s List² and biggest cinematic achievement is ³Jurassic Park.²
Spielberg though, has his own Easter eggs hidden around in the fact that he
has his hands in many baskets as an executive producer or producer. He has
fewer eggs in his directing basket. ³Ready Player One² is one in the
directing basket, and I found ³Ready Player One² to be a wonderful cinema
experience ‹especially with Spielberg at the helm and the fact that ³Ready
Player One² is nostalgia-laden.
³Ready Player One² feels like an homage from Spielberg to
Spielberg. Parzival drives a Delorean. There is the T-Rex from Jurassic
Park. Even Room 237 and many scenes from ³The Shining² make an appearance.
³Ready Player One² is pop culture reference heavy, especially 80s pop
culture. Though the book as I understand has many 80s pop culture
references, the second they hired Spielberg, it was always going to feel
like an homage to himself. I mean, Spielberg completely dominated and owns
the 80s.
³Ready Player One² is an incredible experience that mashes every gaming
experiences through the years and possibly what the future of gaming holds.
It is the perfect family experience for viewers 45 and under to bring their
children to.
The film creates a world that will feel familiar to the mmorpg and virtual
reality generations, and will have enough nostalgia geared toward the 80s
gaming and film generations to keep all parents just as entertained.
³Ready Player One² may contain avatars but it is no “Avatar.² ³Ready Player
One² is all fun, but to be honest that is all that it is and all it is meant
to be.
³Avatar² had a serious message and a serious plot points. ³Ready Player One²
only has one overarching message: Gaming is for everyone and not to be
controlled.
That makes ³Ready Player One,² at its core, a gamer¹s ode to gaming.
IRATE SCORE: 3/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the Graphics Department at the
Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.