Ready Player One

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In the year 2045, humanity has reached a breaking point and spends most of its time in virtual reality as a way to escape the far more bleak real world. Gaming guru James Halliday (played excellently by Mark Rylance) created the virtual world known as the Oasis, and hid an easter egg within, prompting players and their avatars to search the world of the Oasis to find said easter egg. Director Steven Spielberg gives this movie his usual high standard visual flair. The effects in the movie are phenomenal. It takes something special for a movie to hook right from the opening second, but I was on board with the film as soon as Van Halen's "Jump" began playing (perfectly foreshadowing the movie's phenomenal soundtrack to come). Everyone performance in the movie works (even some of the film's smaller performances). You believe the friendship between protagonist Wade and his in-game best friend, Helen aka Aech. Ben Mendelsohn has become a go-to actor for villains in the past few years. He and Hannah John-Kamen both play excellent antagonists. The standout in this movie has got to be Olivia Cooke for me however. This woman has come a long way from her work in the movie Ouija. The easter eggs littered throughout this movie are amazing, and are actually woven into the story very well. They could have easily felt forced, but they didn't. As much as I loved this movie, there is a minor flaw I have that I would like to address. Occasionally, the movie does rush through some explanations, when going through them a little bit more could have made the writing a little tighter. Other than those few and far between dips in the storytelling, Ready Player One was absolutely one hell of a recommended ride.

9 / 10