Ready Player One

Ready Player one isn’t all that great but on the big screen, in 3-D and in a D-box seat you weren’t just watching a film you were experiencing a ride.

The acting, most of it, took place inside a virtual world, which is kind of fun, similar to James Cameron’s Avatar and like that film the best parts and real drama unfold in that universe, which turns into a huge let down when they bring you back to the reality of the these characters.

The curtain of Oz is pulled back and basically you feel like you’re on the paramount movie set which is bad for suspension of disbelief of course.

You realize that this is a movie, you realize the limits within the real world and how construction costs and budgets limit you to this smaller realm, meant to give the impression of something larger, such as a world not much different than our own but it’s very noticeable; almost sad considering the caliber of director in this film.

You see the shoddy script playing out, the stale actors working with one another and the lack of chemistry within the players of this real world story.

Ironically enough the story in the real world makes up the rules as it goes along with stereotypical parts, such as the bad and good guys spinning in circles because the script calls for longer/stupid action scenes which basically take on the feel of a bad TV show than a quality film production.

The Oasis however, a virtual reality world where most people revolve their daily lives and routines around, this is where the world, the rules and the people make sense.

Imagination and nostalgia are the key elements in this film that make it watchable. Seeing classic pop culture figures such as King Kong, the DeLorean from Back to the Future and especially the brilliantly crafted scene that takes place in the Overlook Hotel from the film the Shinning make you yearn and appreciate what we had as viewers growing up and the simplicity of being awed by the wonderful artist and storytellers of our youth.

Topped off with the experience of the D-box seat, driving in a death race through Manhattan or being part of an intergalactic battle on Mount Doom you feel the reverberations of crashes and slow-motion glides through this amazing virtual treasure hunt.

Do we care about the our heros finding the Easter Egg at the end of the trip, or about these people outside of the Oasis fending off the nefarious pursuit of the IOI henchman? Not really. It just wasn’t that interesting to me. What was interesting was the experience of being in the Oasis with the D-box chair. Heck, it made an otherwise bland movie fun and one worth the experience at the right Cineplex… if you have the 25 dollars to shell out for a ticket.

Boring compared to Avatar but better than Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.