Ready Player One

Ready Player One 2018

• Director: Stephen Spielberg
• Based on the book by Ernest Cline
• Cast: Tye Sheriden, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Hanna John-Kamen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tye Sheridan – X-Men Apocalypse, The Tree of Life
• Ben Mendelsohn – Rogue One, Black Sea, The Dark Knight Rises, Black and White
• Simon Pegg – Star Wars the Force Awakens, Absolutely Anything, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz, Doctor Who, Shaun of the Dead, Black Books, 24 Hour Party People
• Mark Rylance – Dunkirk, Big Friendly Giant, Wolf Hall, Twelfth Night, The Other Boleyn Girl
• Why? Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg
• Seen: 7 February 2020      

       Wade (Sheridan) was born in 2027 when people had stopped trying to solve problems. Reality is a bummer. Everyone wants to escape. They get in on Oasis, where the limits of reality are your own imagination. James Halliday (Rylance) was the inventor of it all and is now the owner of the world’s largest company. He is almost a god. Only he died. He left behind a hidden egg and three hidden keys with clues on how to find it. The first person to find the egg will inherit everything.

       Let the game begin.

       Fantastic virtual reality takes turns with real grim reality. The evil corporation IOI is a terrible enemy, both in reality and in virtual reality. They’re after the egg too.

       Not being gamers we’re probably missing loads of fun stuff but it’s fun enough anyway, until the big battle scene, which I slept through. It loses the film a *. But the references to 80’s culture – Joan Jett’s ‘I Hate Myself for Loving You’, Springsteen’s ‘Stand on It’, Ted and Bill, Blondie’s ‘One Way or Another’ – that’s fun. And Rylance as the geeky Halliday lifts it back up a *. Unfortunately, Pegg’s role was minimal.

3* of 5