[rating=3.00]
Ready Player One is a movie that has the distinguishing quality of being a rabidly divisive topic that long precedes its theatrical release. Based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel (he also co-wrote the screenplay with Zak Penn), the book was equally beloved and derided for its imaginative embrace of nerd lore and its clunky prose and poorly-plotted world-building, respectively.
Its marketing campaign that began in late-2017, and has been based almost solely on nostalgia, featuring an amalgamation of beloved characters and pop culture iconography coupled with Wade Watts’ (Tye Sheridan) voiceover waxing philosophic on wishing he was born in the 1980s. For that reason, it became a target of rampant internet criticism for what was seen as a lowest common denominator approach to filmmaking — despite how closely it adhered to its source material.
While I wasn’t caught up in the undertow of mob mentality, I wasn’t exactly excited about the film, either. Then, when I interviewed Cline for The Hollywood Reporter in late February, his genuine excitement for seeing his work adapted for the big screen was endearing to the point that my curiosity was genuinely piqued. After all, to deny the constant references wouldn’t service the source material, and if anyone could adapt Cline’s work for the big screen — and make it palpable for a mainstream audience — it was Steven Spielberg.
After the “surprise” screening at SXSW this year, which generated (mostly) positive reactions, it seemed like this could be a genuinely fun popcorn movie.
It was not.
Based on the reactions of the other patrons at the screening I saw this week, who seemed genuinely enthralled by the hyper-animated spectacle, It’s likely that an outlier here. But loyal to the book or not, it was positively exhausting to stay afloat of the constant barrage of references that seemed to overload every scene. And I wasn’t even trying to do that, but the over-explanation of everything made it impossible to just sit back and enjoy the film for what it was. On any level. At all.
What kept going through my head was that scene from NBC’s Community* when Jeff (Joel McHale) asks Abed (Danny Pudi) why he has to incessantly “take whatever happens to us and shove it up its own ass?” It’s not just that the references are tiring, it’s the references crammed inside other references, which are (almost) always pointed out, explained, or otherwise referred to in a way that never quite breaks the fourth wall, but does tend to lean against it pretty heavily.
*Yes, I’m aware of the irony of making a pop culture reference while complaining about pop culture references, thank you.
It’s a never-ending Russian nesting doll of self-congratulatory pop culture innuendo, which seems to assume that viewers are either incapable of catching these references on their own or are so captivated by them they need a CG avatar explains why it’s relevant to the story in painstaking detail. It’s not even fair to call them Easter eggs, which are typically hidden in plain site, but never spotlighted. Here, it’s more like someone walking up to you, saying “Hey, here’s an Easter egg,” then placing it firmly in the palm of your hand.
Again, based on the majority of responses that have steadily surfaced in the last couple weeks, Ready Player One does seem to be winning over its most adamant critics. Maybe it was me, violating some unwritten cardinal sin of movie critiquing by going in not just ready to like it, but wanting to like it. Honestly, I’m not sure, but even on the most cathartic “hey, they’re racing a bunch of cars down a track while being chased by a T-Rex and King Kong” level, it simply didn’t click.
Instead, I sat there, patiently waiting for the kill screen.
Ready Player One is now playing in theaters everywhere.
