Ready Player One

Dir: Steven Spielberg

2018

****

Ready Player One must have been a copy write nightmare to navigate through. The novel is something of a modern nerd bible that references geek pop-culture from the 70s and 80s that would appeal mostly to sci-fi film fans, video gamers and role-players. The book did well, no surprise as author Ernest Cline is a true nerd and everything about it feels authentic. We nerds are actually quite an easy bunch of people to please, so while we appreciated the inclusion of some of the more mainstream references in the book, we also knew it was the real deal when Cline based so much of it on genuinely great games such as Black Tiger, a game no one talks about other than bona fide nerds. I wasn’t surprised when a film adaptation was announced but I was skeptical about how authentic it could be, so much so, that I actually had very little enthusiasm for it. I decided to shield myself from the inevitable disappointment. I have to say, even though he is a legend, Steven Spielberg’s films have been very hit and miss for the last few years and the announcement that he would direct made me even less enthusiastic and I thought it was a bit of a cheap shot given that so many of his films featured in the story. Thankfully I was mostly wrong. So the story in the film is very different from that in the book, it had to be and for what its worth I believe there are improvements. I loved the race sequence to find the first key for instance whereby Akira's bike, the A-Team van, the Batmobile (from the 1960s) and Back to the Future's DeLorean race against each other while King Kong and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park try to knock them off the road – even if it did mean the film peaked a little too early. Spielberg decided to ditch all references to his own films – which I respect – but left in a couple of little details you could attach to some of his work. The other major concern I had was whether the 70s and 80s references would be understood by the younger audience and therefore not make it into the film, but thankfully they are all pretty much there, with a few 90s and 00s references stuck in there for good measure. This was a book written by a nerd born in the 70s, it was for me and other nerds of a certain age and I’m pleased to say the film reflected that. Cline wrote the screenplay, so no surprise there really but having Zak ‘Last Action Hero’ Penn co-write it was a stroke of genius. Spielberg and team spent many months securing the rights to many films and characters and by the end of it they stated that they managed to get 80% of what was featured in the novel. Spielberg’s influence and the respect people have for him was a bit reason why he was hired and it certainly worked in this respect. Blade Runner was a big part of the original story but as the sequel was being filmed at the same time they were denied the rights – which I’m quite glad about. I thought the Iron Giant worked so much better than Ultraman ever would but I do find it bizarre and somewhat amusing that Spielberg wasn’t able to secure the rights to his own Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Removing the WarGames sequence and replacing it with The Shining was another genius decision. I do wonder how many of the kids in the cinema I watched it in had actually even heard of The Shining, let alone had seen it. I love that they included it, it felt like a mini-victory for us nerds born before the 1980s – before it was cool to be a geek. Indeed, the references to films and shows such as Nightmare on Elm Street, The A-Team, Space Balls, Akira, Big Trouble in Little China and Christine really thrilled and surprised me. It is a film about so called Easter Eggs that was crammed full of them. I’m a competitive nerd, so I saw the film as a sport as well as a piece of entertainment. However, being born in the 70s there were problems I had with it. It all got a bit too fast, a bit too loud and there were far too many special effects to take in. The High Five gang were a big part of the novel but their development within the film leaves a lot to be desired. There were times when the film became all nostalgia and no depth and some of the Spielberg-style ‘magic’ just didn’t quite suit the style of the film. This is because Spielberg’s signature magic has been missing for quite a few decades now, had this been made in the 1980s it would be a classic but I’m afraid he is a different director now. The CGI scenes involving Mark Rylance were horrible and I have to say a lot of the original characters within the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) were dreadful. Spielberg actually approached Gene Wilder to play the character Rylance ended up playing, it would have been awesome if he’d said yes but in truth I don’t think either actor was suitable. I can’t say I like Rylance in any of Spielberg’s films, his older nerd character felt more like Neil from The Young Ones (played by Nigel Planer in the 1980s BBC comedy) than a genuine nerd in his sixties. Overall it is hard to resist the explosion of nerdtastic pop-culture but when you strip away the trivia and other people’s ideas, you are left with very little. However, I’m a sucker for all those things and even if you take them away, you are still left with an original concept and a very likable and entertaining experience.