Ready Player One

I thought pretty early on that this could potentially make an interesting review. But I doubted it would make a positive one. I was sort of wrong on both counts. I don't think this review is going to be as negative as I predicted. It probably also won't be as interesting as I wanted either.

The story took some getting used to and I only settled down with it about halfway through. Before that I was convinced of nothing happening on-screen (the uncanny valley CGI characters didn't help) but I eventually was able to let my eyes keep up with my brain. But I really disliked the action sequences. They were a literal headache. I got more used to them as the movie went on. But it's not something I enjoyed getting used to. If I had seen this in the theater I suspect I would have hated it.

Speaking of theaters, this was released in 2018, which sort of makes me understand a bit why I was resisting the moral of a virtual world that makes you forget the problems in the real world. And I get why that notion appealed to people in 2018. I can only speak for myself, but the Trump presidency was literally the four worst years of my life. And I escaped through much of it through entertainment and creativity. And yet, I still paid attention. As horrified as I was, I didn't drop out of the reality of the horror simply because it stressed me out. I dealt with the pain and sadness and fear I felt as best as I could. I understand why a movie championing an idea of a virtual escape room from a hellish political situation was made for 2018. And yet, I feel that's the wrong moral, whether people can relate to it or not. I personally relate to and understand that idea. And I still reject it.

The movie is overlong. The Halliday character is not somebody I remotely relate to, speaking as both an Aspie and a nerd. I think the contest was problematic from the get-go because the wrong person still could have won if they were clever enough. And it sort of turns the movie into The Goonies and other treasure hunts. I loved the Uncle Scrooge adventures as a kid. I didn't recognize the problematic tropes present at the time, but I see them now. This movie attempts to sidestep them by suggesting this is a valid legal contest. But considering the amount of people hurt and killed by unscrupulous business types trying to win at all costs, I can't help but feel the entire contest was counterproductive. Halliday should have just willed the entire company to Simon Pegg's decent character and saved the world a lot of hurt. And I think about and notice these kinds of subtexts in movies and TV shows, which is why I tend to like things other people don't, and dislike things other people love. I'm not trying to be a contrarian or a butthole. I simply have my own perspective about the morality of screen fiction and it tends to vastly differ from most of fandom. I'm not trying to be annoying, I swear.

Ultimately, that movie worked out okay. I saw it at home so I was allowed bathroom breaks and I wasn't as drained as I would have been seeing it in the theater. But I question the values the movie is asking us to accept, and I also question the validity of The Quest itself. But it was all right in the end. ***1/2.