★★★★★

Ready Player One is the classic rags to riches story where the nerdy under achiever teams up with an unlikely crew to defeat the evil corporation IOI from taking over the beloved OASIS.

 

The OASIS is a massively immersive virtual reality world where people do everything from business, gaming, leisure, and form relationships. It’s the one escape from a very bleak future. When in the OASIS you can be anything you want and build anything. The reclusive creator had a great love of classic gaming and popular culture and built the world to reflect this.

 

Upon his death, it was revealed that there were three keys and that finding the three keys would reveal the Easter egg, which in turn granted a controlling stake in the world’s most valuable company.

 

This movie is a lot of fun, particularly if you’re a pop culture junkie. The volume of references is quite literally overwhelming and the film is a visual overload. But it works. Everything from Master Chief from Halo, a Delorean merged with Kitt from Knight Rider, to Hot Wheels style racing and the Iron Giant and of course a nice reference to the Firefly television series.

 

Listening to the audience in this movie is fantastic as they exclaim with excitement when a favourite character appears even for the briefest moment. The attention to detail is fantastic. The love story reeks of Hollywood studio executive “notes” that is entirely unnecessary and doesn’t add anything except some warm fuzzies. Considering the number of pop culture references from everyone’s childhoods, warm fuzzies are not in short supply. That part of the storyline is one of the major variances from the book.

 

This film is highly recommended. It’s hard to just watch it once, there’s just too many references to take in with just one viewing.

★★★★★

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