Episode 1 - Ready Player One

MoviePass Vacation - Episode 1 - Ready Player One
April 2nd, 2018 @ Regal Manor Stadium 16 in Lancaster, PA - $13.40 for a normal ticket
MoviePass Investment - $89.50.  Total Savings - $13.40.  Overall ROI. -$76.10

My first experience using the pass was a relative breeze.  I checked in and selected my movie and time using the app out front of the theater about twenty minutes early so I'd have time to grab a bite to eat before the showing.  You still have to wait in line to reserve your seat using the physical card they send you in the mail after registering online.  This seems like a weird flaw they'll eventually figure out eventually, if I don't personally bankrupt this platform first.  Other than the initial check-in via the app they treated the MoviePass card like a regular debit card, and I was good to go.

When the movie began the sound in the theater was off in such a weird way that I had to really think about how to explain it before I walked out and complained to the ticket taker.  It was like the music and the sound effects were turned down lower than the characters' voices.  I expected a big splash into the opening credits and it all fell flat through no fault of the movie itself.  I tried to relay the audio issue to the staff, but clearly failed because they didn't fix the problem until about halfway through the movie.  (No diss to Regal I love that place, I've worked in theaters before I get it.  Just a note.)

I probably shouldn't have complained.  I only noticed the sound was fixed later in the film when Twisted Sister came on during what otherwise would have been an emotional highlight.  This was just one of a dozen or so cringeworthy moments of cheesiness that made me question whether this movie actually cared about anything that is good, or whether it was just going to fall all over itself to try and make as many references to media from my youth as possible.  

With that said, in a movie so full of pop culture references that I'm actually excited to read the inevitable Buzzfeed article entitled "11 Things You Definitely Missed In Ready Player One," there is so much packed in here that there is a lot to love as well.

To avoid getting too bogged down in the minutiae of the references I loved (Madballs!!!) and the ones that fell flat (Saturday Night Fever, really?), I'd rather focus on the elements of the film that are not related to Atari or Akira or A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

For starters, it's amazing that the 71-year-old director of Schindler's List wanted to make a movie where 75% of it takes place in a virtual reality video game world. I didn't love all of the CGI (is it weird to say it's too "video gamey"?), but he certainly didn't embarrass himself.  A few of those VR set pieces fall flat, but there are a few I absolutely loved.  I won't spoil my favorite, which spends a delightful ten or so minutes revisiting the set of one of my favorite horror films, but I will just say I am a sucker for films that clearly showcase a love for cinema.  Despite it's faults, this movie is oozing with appreciation for the medium of movies, disguised as a movie in love with gaming.

Ready Player One gets an immense amount of credit for being very, very clever, not in how many times it can reference Back to the Future, but how well The Oasis (the VR world in which most of the film takes place) is constructed.  The unlocking of the "keys" is smart in every instance and offers a thoughtful ode to the very nature of video games in the end.

I love it when a movie takes a big swing, and Ready Player One shot for the moon.  I'm not sure exactly who this film is for though.  The reliance on CGI will turn off the very fans of 70s, 80s, and even 90s pop culture that the movie references over and over again.  I can only hope the 13 year olds of today who enjoy this movie will take the time to check out the classic films of the past 40 years this movie bends over backwards to reference.

Rating - B