Oh hey, that’s a DeLorean! I should go re-watch Back to the Future.

Ready Player One is a very pretty movie (I seem to be saying that [a lot]) recently) and absolutely chock full of pop culture references… which honestly felt rather overdone. The plot is thin and the world doesn’t really make sense, although I did enjoy the characters well enough.

The whole idea of a near future dystopia based around people spending more of their lives virtually than in real life isn’t really a new one, but it’s still something worth exploring–which I think Ready Player One does decently, if not spectacularly.

It’s weird how everything seems to be based on a single avatar per player, with persistent gear that you have to pay for and could easily lose–except I suppose that’s exactly how I can imagine companies building a game out like this. Gotta make money and all that.

Nostalgiawise, it’s fun enough. I don’t really get it, but there were a whole handful of ‘oh hey I know that thing’ moments. It’s a little weird that a world 30 years in our future seems to be mostly referencing things from 30 years ago. I suppose the Oasis was belt in our very near future?

Plotwise, it’s a fetchquest and learning a bit about themselves as you go along. I suppose. The whole idea that absolutely no one ever decided to just… drive backwards is kind of hard to believe. I remember doing that in racing games decades ago. And in the end, everyone stood up and clapped–said no one ever.

Characterwise, the mains were fine but nothing particularly special. Tye Sheridan as Parzival was mostly awkward and weird, but I suppose that’s entirely the point. Olivia Cooke as Art3mis was much better.And I really did love the big corp villainous sort: Ben Mendelsohn as Sorrento.

Overall, I was hoping for more. It was a fun enough movie though and I’m glad I finally watched it.

Onward!