Ready Player One (2018) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here for a simple movie review. As you know, I reviewed the 2011 novel, Ready Player One yesterday and decided that today I'd review the 2018 movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg. I spent most of the day watching it on DVD, and the nearly two hour long Making Of documentary on the bonus disc. Which is kind of surprising for a DVD that was released in 2018. There will be spoilers for the movie, so if by some chance you haven't seen the movie yet, and are interested in seeing it, please do so before you read this review. Let's get into it.

I actually got to see Ready Player One in theatres back in 2018. Brad and I went, and if I remember correctly, we saw it on opening night because we could do that back then. I enjoyed it, but I haven't watched it since then. I own it digitally on iTunes and I own the DVD, but I didn't buy either copy right away. I actually sat on it for a couple of years. But the DVD is a pretty great release even though it doesn't have an audio commentary or deleted scenes. That's okay though because there was a huge wealth of information in the nearly two hour documentary on the making of the film. But, I digress.

One thing that I like about the movie is that it addresses basically all of the problems that I have with the book, as I mentioned in my review yesterday. The biggest being how Cline handled characters like Art3mis, Aech, Sho (Shoto in the book), and Daito. Not to mention Sorrento has more of a storyline in the movie than he did in the book. Which is something I completely forgot about since I hadn't seen the movie in four and a half years. So I guess I'll start there.

In the book, Sorrento is just the typical corporate stooge who wants to conquer the world, but doesn't have the guts to do it on his own. In the movie he was an intern at Gregarious Games who worked for James Halliday and only got hired by IOI due to his supposed Halliday knowledge, which, of course, was extremely minimal as the Curator at the Halliday Journals, which is a combination of a museum and a library, focusing on James Halliday's life, similar to Wade's grail book in the novel, told Parzival and Art3mis. Which, in a way, makes him the way that i-R0k was in the book. Pretending to be a know it all, but actually knowing nothing. 

Speaking of i-R0k, he has a much bigger role in the movie than he does in the book. In the book, he's only in one scene, near the beginning, is mentioned one other time, and then he disappears, never to be mentioned again. Here, he's basically Sorrento's right hand man in the OASIS. He does recon on Parzival and Art3mis, gets weapons and items for Sorrento and the Sixers, and even provides the magical shield the Sixers use to keep the Gunters out of Castle Anorak, Halliday's stronghold, where the final gate is located, for the final act. 

The cast of this movie is fantastic. You have Tye Sheridan as Wade/Parzival, Olivia Cooke as Samantha/Art3mis, Lena Waithe as Helen/Aech, Philip Zhao as Zhou/Sho, Win Morisaki as Toshiro/Daito, Ben Mendelsohn as Sorrento, Mark Rylance as Halliday and Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow. I've seen Tye Sheridan in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), but that's the only movie I've seen him in, this is the first movie I've seen Olivia Cooke, Mark Rylance, Lena Waithe, Philip Zhao, and Win Morisaki in but they're all awesome in their roles, I've seen Ben Mendelsohn in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), this movie, Captain Marvel (2019), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and of course, I've seen Simon Pegg as Scotty in the three most recent Star Trek movies: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016).

I think I like Art3mis alot more in the movie than I do in the book. In the book, Cline wrote her as purely altruistic with her reasons for winning the contest, but there was no personal connection to that altruism, and it came off as her not really caring about IOI and the Sixers. But here though, she's trying to protect the OASIS from IOI because her dad was killed in indenturement to the company, in addition to helping the homeless and the hungry, which are all noble causes, but in a book, movie, TV show, or comic book it doesn't help the reader or viewer connect to the character if that's all there is to them. So for Art3mis to have a more personal reason for wanting to win Halliday's contest, it makes her more relatable and more like a person.

If I'm being honest, as much as I like the book, I think Cline should've made it into a movie from the very beginning. The story works so much better as a movie in my opinion. It's tighter, less focused on Wade, and all the characters get more to do. For example, Aech has a thing about horror movies, which is why they (Aech is a guy in the OASIS and a woman in the real world, so I guess they is appropriate?) had never seen The Shining (1980). I can completely relate to that because I'm not a fan of horror movies myself, which is why I've never seen The Shining. 

Overall I really enjoy this movie. It was fun getting to watch it again after four and a half years and I will definitely watch it again in the near future. It's funny, fun, and, in my opinion, a feel good movie. Even beyond the '80s nostalgia, which actually shows more in the movie's soundtrack than it does in the movie itself, simply because there are references to more modern stuff in the movie too, particularly in the final OASIS battle at the end of the movie. 

Alright my friends, that's gonna be it for me for now, but I will be back soon with another movie review. I've got two more that I wanna do before I dive into Power Rangers. So until then have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.