Ready Player One Review - Spielberg being Spielberg

by - Suhansid Srikanth

It will be safe if I can start this with saying a simple statement.. Steven Spielberg's recent film 'Ready Player One' was the most kickass fun I've had in a long time in cinemas. Because anything I am gonna say ahead will only be less to make up for what I've seen on screen. And by fun.. it is not just about the spectacular visual fantasy it has or the super sci-fi universe it is set in.. the very story itself is one major throwback to the childhood we all holding within us.

Just think of this..

At any given point, one enters yet another Spielberg film with only one major question.. "What else Spielberg can do anymore?" How tough is to be Spielberg when you make a film? Is there anything humanly possible for Spielberg to come up with something to get theatres all over the world shout and scream with excitement once again?

He is someone who started with a shark's madness that splashed the ocean over screens. He made us all meet a friend from a place so so so lightyears and even dreams away. He rode us all to a hero unfolding right before us. He put us all in a run for life from a species that's extinct since 250 million years ago. He left us stranded amidst the cruelties of war zones. He threw us all into future and said 'Cheese!'. He told remarkable tales of extraordinary people. What's left over for him to enthrall the world now? What can even come closer enough to excite him in the first place?

Just when you think of all this.. Steven Spielberg, the 71 years oldman has made a film on a virtual world set inside a game! The film is Spielberg being Spielberg all the way once again! In 'a story teller for a kid' like narration.. In the vision.. In the magnificence.. In the wonder it weaves.. In detailing..

And it all unfolds like a debutant's stunner! With this film.. he puts a golden bookmark in his legacy!

The film dives right into the story. It explores OASIS, a virtual world created for a game by James Halliday who set a three level challenge to own it. It is that typical hollywood mould we all grew up watching where a real world nerd (Wade) gets a superhero alter-life (Parzival) to save the world from apocalypse. There is a friend character (Aech, which by the way has some epic counters to crack you) that warns the hero when he falls for a girl. There are explosions and car blasts like buttons dropped. There is a live relay of what's happening inside the game to the entire world near climax, with people clapping and cheering to hero's actions. There are last minute entries by characters to save the mission. There is password memorising by protagonist when the villain is looking away that gives him the power to hack and control him later. There is even a big kiss at the end that religiously is a sign of a blockbuster Hollywood flick. But the fun here is in the pace at which all this is set in. Spielberg removes all the 'you know generally in these kind of films' parts. He is not interested in telling the hows and whys. He is here to show you the WHAT!

The game universe set inside the world is bizarre and adventure. I am still smiling of the scene when a beastily aversive creature warned three girls to walk away from the place and as they move.. one among them says "He is looking so crazy" while the other says "I find him cool". We hardly hear them yet we get the point. The world is that bizarre. It is a madman's fantasy. A place where you are happily.. addictively escaped from reality! And to me, the craziest part of the film for sure is one where the characters enter inside 'The Shining' movie. It is not just treated as a movie universe put inside a game but the theme itself resonates with Kubrick's masterpiece. Halliday, like Jack in 'The Shining'.. is a loner who chose 'The Shining' for a movie date. We see Halliday and his girlfriend inside the infamous group photograph hanging in the villa. We see a character stuck inside Room 237. We see the twins again. The blood flood is back! The typewriter that reads 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' (how reverse metaphorical!). In a way.. it is Spielberg paying back his cinematic love to the auteur.

Unlike many other films set in future.. Spielberg doesn't throw any references to the current world. The story starts in 2045 and a rebellion is happening to save the world from corporates taking control over their game world. The villain (it took a while for me to come in terms with his name, Nolan) calls himself a corporate jerk who brushes aside a murder as a corporate decision and nothing personal. I laughed out with his mighty password being "BO55man69" and him having a tutorial for kegel exercise in his system. And what ironic justice it is to make him feel the pain with a kick in his balls from the hero.

One of the most beautiful things I liked about the film was when the love interest of Wade is introduced to us with a birthmark. While she is waiting for him to be disappointed.. he asks her back, "What's there to be disappointed with a birthmark?". It is a film set in 2045. It is talking about games and virtual powers. Still, such sprinkle of moments so naive and human is what makes this film live and real. And you know what.. for a girl who is that reluctant about her own birthmark, "NO" comes right away when Wade asks her whether he can call her Sam. She insists him to call her Samantha.

There is a 11 year old member in their team (Sho), the most badass eleven years old as Wade says.. who is so not caring about his age being a awestuff to people. Even the character of Aech comes as an even more sweet surprise in the real world which I would leave unsaid for y'all to watch on screen.

We see Halliday living with his childhoodself at the end. Like many great genius men who walked on earth.. his life is a tragedy succumbed with loneliness. It is often discussed by the characters to trace the clues. The game itself is his way of compensating for what he lacked in the real world. Halliday himself claims games were there for him when the real life wasn't. The film's constant connection to the past kept me thinking about these words of Woody Allen all through the film..

“In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!”

(Strange there is an usage of Voila here as well!) But the point I am trying to make is Halliday's vision for his game fulcrums down from his adulthood to childhood. It travels back.. revisits his youth and ends up in his childhood favorite game!

We hear Halliday's favorite quote is from Superman..

Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.

In hindsight.. this is how Spielberg and his stories are! Most of the times.. he doesn't want to tell the stories of incredible men doing incredible things. He picks ordinary tales that have ordinary people who did incredible things, finding they had it in them in amusingly ordinary moments. It sparks off one crazy idea.. one 'why not?'.. and it dazzleblasts a wonderland before us!

For someone like me who have always been a huge no sayer to 3D for it spoiling the real fun of watching a film or connecting to the world it creates.. this is the first time I felt having one hell of an experience with the technology. I was smiling all the way through the film with the fact hitting me.. Spielberg, who has been in his game for almost half a century is here again with a film set in future that has a vision so dream-like for any young filmmaker one-third of his age. All the wonders, actions, adventures you see over the screen for 2+ hours is him so godly spelling a reminder to the rest of the world.. "This is what movies are capable of". And with this.. I believe.. he is not setting anymore bars. He is the freaking bar!

And.. Believe me.. for a film that talks about so much gaming.. scientific spectacles.. virtual worlds.. supernatural elements.. it ended with a line..

"REALITY IS THE ONLY THING THAT'S REAL"