Ready Player One ***

Gamers rejoice; Steven Spielberg has a treat for you in a Virtual Reality world. To some this is a dream come true. To others it feels like a living nightmare, as the end suggests in the usual moralistic manner about the importance of human interaction. This is sci-fi fantasy fodder for anyone dreaming of escaping reality and ‘starting over’. At the same time, it is homage to the 80s in sound, visuals and attitude.

It’s 2045 and people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere and be anyone, all designed by ‘geek’ Anorak/James Halliday (Mark Rylance). After his death, players discover they can win control of the OASIS by collecting three keys to unlock the next round, the clues leading to where they are hidden in this immense world.

Player Parzial (Wade, played by Tye Sheridan) enlists help from co-player Art3mis (Samantha, played by Olivia Cooke) to solve the puzzle, but not before being pursued by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) who runs the ‘evil’ big corporation trying to gain Halliday’s OASIS before anyone else does.

Think The Matrix for gamers, and Spielberg’s fanboy amusement mixes nostalgia and action in IMAX grandeur, assaulting your visual senses as it pulls you into the VR world and makes you as much part of the search as its leads. If it all gets too futuristic, there are the 80s ‘comforts’ to cling to and enjoy for a split second before you are dragged onto the next onslaught.

There is no resting until the puzzle is solved. In fact, what might be thrilling for some is too ‘virtual’ for others with only smatterings of ‘21^st century reality’ to compare events to. As exciting as the VR visuals are, there is a sense of being lost that makes you want to check out for a moment and take off the headset yourself, before Parzial does. Indeed, Spielberg succeeds in reproducing the gamers’ paradise that feels alien to the rest of us.

While Mendelsohn donates any scene he appears in, this is not about the characters – whether intentional or not. There are no solid character arcs. What drives the film is the visual navigator that plunges us into the spectacular worlds, with the film not lacking imagination. For this reason, it is fully realised on the IMAX screen, and totally immersive.

Ready Player One feels like the next step in Spielberg’s cinematic arsenal, a real test for his loyal fans and a demonstration of what he can achieve next. However, if first-player video gaming is not your bag, you might struggle with this – even resent it for trying to connect with you on a personal level with its ‘trendy’ retro 80s references. It is a love-hate experience and quite a big, ballsy experiment for Spielberg.

3/5 stars

By @Filmgazer

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