Spielberg steadies 'Ready Player One'
Even though Steven Spielberg purposefully kept (most of) his own iconic imagery out the nostalgia-driven adventure, “Ready Player One,” the movie succeeds by leaning into “Spielbergian” sensibilities.
The relentless list-making and indulgence of the source material, Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, has been replaced by the director’s fluid editing, effortless camera work and a careful balance between large set pieces and smaller character beats.
Perhaps a case of setting the proper expectations, “Ready Player One” the movie worked much better for me compared to the book, which I found to be an excruciating read at times (see last Friday’s column). The constant references to ’80s pop culture would stretch on for pages and even chapters in the book, whereas in the movie Spielberg can fill a few action scenes with dozens of visual references without derailing the story. Visual storytelling simply works better for the kind of referential mayhem that remains the essence of “Ready Player One.”
The basic story remains the same — a teen, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), living in a decaying Columbus, Ohio, in 2045, spends most of his life inside an expansive virtual reality universe known as the OASIS. People can do almost anything inside the OASIS, look like their favorite characters (cue the references), and almost everyone obsesses over the ’80s and ’90s pop culture addictions of the game’s creator, James Halliday (recent Spielberg muse Mark Rylance of “Bridge of Spies,” etc.).
When Halliday dies, he leaves behind a massive contest featuring hidden keys and three “gates” marked by retro-inspired challenges. The winner takes ownership of the OASIS, as well as Halliday’s billions of dollars.
The movie streamlines the contest in a few successful ways — it drops much of the code-breaking centered on the execution of retro video game levels, which probably wouldn’t translate well on the big screen. It also better focuses those challenges on key moments from Halliday’s life, and the clues are dispersed with “flashback reenactments” featuring Rylance and Simon Pegg as Halliday’s former business partner. It provides the film with more live-action humanity, an important commodity in a movie that takes place largely in a CGI video game world.
The film also connects the main group of heroes much sooner, whereas in the book Watt’s avatar Parzival interacts with fellow hunters Art3mis and Aech almost exclusively inside the OASIS.
Basically every key change from the book works in the movie’s favor, and credit should definitely go to Cline himself, who co-wrote the script with Zak Penn. The film also benefits from its veteran actors — Rylance and Pegg bring much needed warmth, and Ben Mendelsohn as a corporate antagonist goes comically evil in a way a movie with such a ridiculous premise demands.
“Ready Player One” also (partially) solves its Art3mis problem. In the book, she’s the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl that does almost nothing and serves as a prize of sorts to Wade’s nerd hero. In the film, Art3mis/Samantha, as played confidently by Olivia Cooke, has more agency and serves as the key heroic figure down the stretch. A few lazy elements remain in the relationship between Wade and Samantha, but the movie suffocates most of those with CGI action, for better or worse.
Spielberg inserts more conflict into the real world too, with many CGI sequences intercut with live-action conflict. There’s a subtle, critical eye here as well, with epic video game fights intercutting with humans flailing around absurdly in bodysuits and VR visors. That said, “Ready Player One” still wants it both ways — the digital ghost of Halliday keeps pounding at the idea of living a better life outside the OASIS, but look! The Iron Giant is fighting Mechagodzilla! The “Back to the Future” Delorean is being chased by King Kong!
The OASIS sequences won’t be for everybody, and while the visuals are probably the most chaotic and overstuffed of Spielberg’s career, the action scenes carry the director’s unrivaled fluidity. The opening car chase, on paper, should be a nonsensical disaster (it certainly seemed that way in the movie’s theatrical trailer), but sharp editing and careful management of the frame make the scene coherent and exciting.
Not all of “Ready Player One’s” problems are solved by Spielberg and a punchier script. There still isn’t much plot here, and the characters, even when played charismatically, rarely play above archetype. When it pops though, it really pops, proving Spielberg’s sustained ability to make entertaining popcorn fare. The film’s best scene, set in one of Stanley Kubrick’s most iconic movie locales, should be enough for even the most skeptical detractors.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com