Ready Player One

I actually saw Ready Player One a few weeks ago but I had some other things on my plate so this review had to wait. This movie may be the best video game related movie ever made, and it is absolutely a must see for every gamer out there.

The basic premise is sort of The Matrix, only in reverse sort of, instead of people being enslaved by machines to live in an artificial digital world, the people choose to live there voluntarily because the real world is sort of a lost cause. The story takes place in Columbus, Ohio which is now like Silicon Valley in a world where apparently everything else has just about lost all of it's value. A programmer named Halliday created the ultimate online virtual experience, beyond just a video game, the Oasis seems to be limited only by the imagination of it's users, it can be used for adventuring, partying, dating, gambling, business, art, and just about anything in between. Then Halliday dies and leaves no heirs, only a video will leaving everything to whoever can "beat the game" of the Oasis by finding three keys that he hid as easter eggs inside the game. It takes a few years for anyone to figure out where the first key is hidden, but as the movie opens, a young man named Wade Watts, going by the online name Parzifal, figures out how to reach the first key. He and four others, Aech(pronounced "H"), Saito, Sho, and Artemis, are the last five casual players who haven't given up on the egg hunt, while everyone else has either given up on the hunt or joined IOI to utilize corporate resources to find the keys for their boss. They all meet up for an impossible race in which the finish line is inaccessible due to King Kong blocking the path. Wade discovers the key is go in reverse and trigger a hidden race track that bypasses King Kong. Both race sequences are possibly the most intense car chase that hasn't involved Steve McQueen, Vin Diesel or Jason Statham. Wade slips the secret to his friends who agree to keep it to themselves and become the High Five, nicknamed for their high scores for finding the keys, the only ones because absolutely nobody else manages to figure it out. It is now up to the High Five to finish what they started, but the leader, Parzifal, is smitten by Artemis who gives him a very interesting experience at a virtual night club looking for the next key, and when he tells her his real name, he inadvertently draws the attention of the IOI to blow up the trailer where he lives, only he isn't there,though sadly his aunt, his last living relative, dies in the explosion. Wade gets rescued by Artemis who turns out to be Samantha, a girl about his age who is drop dad gorgeous except for a birthmark that is only bad enough to turn off shallow douchebags, and Wade proves he is not a shallow douchebag by insisting he still loves her anyway. It should be noted Aech warned him Artemis might be a a fat old dude who lives in his mama's basement, so finding out the only flaw that keeps her from being a perfect ten is a red patch around her right eye, he's actually just relieved she's actually a girl and while she's still a nine, he's probably an eight and can't take his eyes off of her fine ass in cut off jean shorts long enough to realize the ultimate gamer girl is actually ugly by some people's standards. So yeah, there's a brief moment where our heroes turn about to be a sickeningly sweet couple, but it totally serves the story as it solidifies their teamwork as they resume the hunt. They have a sort of second virtual date which leads to finding the second key, which triggers Parzifal's score to change and alert his enemy that he did not die in the explosion. IOI tracks them down and captures Samantha but Wade gets away and meets up with the other egg hunters IRL for the first time and they go looking for the final key which has been blocked off by a barrier that can only be shut off from inside, which only Artemis can do now. While Artemis does her part, Wade rallies all of the other users to help him beat the IOI. The grand battle in the Oasis is a spectacle, but a more subtle yet effective scene is when an IOI empolyee tries to track down Wade IRL and watches players fighting in the streets, realizing that they are all supporting the High Five in the Oasis and the IOI is losing to these dedicated players. I dn't want to give away the ending, but it has a happy ending so if you can connect the dots, just imagine Willy Wonka if the candy factory was a giant video game.

Some people might say the book is better than the movie, but considering that this is all about 198o's nostalgia, the fact is, the author was inspired by Stecen Spielberg and getting Steven Spielberg to direct his story and make it into this visual feast probably satisifes the author much more than the book. If you think the story is important and you miss some vital points that were written in the book that didn't make itto the screen, the book is still out there, you can read it all you want. For the rest of us who actually grew up in the '80s and know what this is about, this movie is everything we ever wanted all at once. Even once you get the story, the easter eggs in this film will keep you findign new things after multiple viewings.

This movie will inspire a lot of people in the ways these movies usually do, but it's even more to me, because this was an author writing his story of childhood nostalgia made real. Next, it will be 7th Moon...