Lately I\u2019ve been at a loss to find any sci-fi movies that I might like.\u00a0 After some searches I saw a trailer for this 2018 Spielberg film and decided to give it a viewing.\u00a0 The scenario is a dystopian future where because of (you guessed it) global warming and the exhaustion of all fossil fuels everybody lives in trailer homes stacked on top of each other in piles.\u00a0 And because life is so miserable, everybody spends all their time inside a virtual reality program called the Oasis.\u00a0 This program was invented by an uber-geek named James Donovan Halliday who when he died revealed to the world that hidden in Oasis was an Easter Egg and clues to finding it.\u00a0 Whoever found it would inherit his ownership of Oasis which was worth around a trillion dollars.<\/p>\n
This is the story of how a teen age geek named Wade Owen Watts (in game name; Parzival) with the help of his friends Aech, Art3mis, Daito and Shoto find the Easter Egg and save the gaming world from the evil IOI (Innovative Online Industries) corporation that wanted to win the contest and turn Oasis into a boring commercial wasteland.\u00a0 Nolan Sorrento, the head of IOI, detects Wade\u2019s success at finding the clues and uses real world violence to try and sideline Wade and his friends.\u00a0 And in fact, Wade\u2019s aunt and many people living in his trailer stack are killed in a drone attack meant for Wade.\u00a0 But eventually good prevails and Wade and his friends find the egg and live happily ever after.\u00a0 Now for my review.<\/p>\n
This is a Spielberg film.\u00a0 And it is like every other Spielberg film.\u00a0 The hero is introduced and we watch him struggle, fail, learn and grow.\u00a0 The good people are hip and watched Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off and the Breakfast Club when they were young and the bad people are corporate types that wear three-piece suits.\u00a0 And because this is today one of the characters is a black lesbian because diversity.\u00a0 And like in all Spielberg films, when the climactic scene where everything will either fail or succeed is reached, there is the annoying back and forth fumbling which is supposed to produce nervous tension.\u00a0 In this one the on-line character is trying to get a key into a keyhole while his real-life body is standing in the back of a speeding mail truck that is being slammed into by hostile vehicles.\u00a0 So, for several minutes we have to watch him miss the keyhole.\u00a0 This sort of thing was annoying in the Indiana Jones movies and in Saving Private Ryan.\u00a0 It\u2019s still annoying today.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a terrible movie.\u00a0 The special effects in the movie are extremely good.\u00a0 But the characters in Oasis and in the real world are not particularly likable or realistic.\u00a0 And the plot is very predictable with the usual strawman for the villain. \u00a0I suppose someone who is a big fan of gaming might enjoy the in-jokes and references to classic games.\u00a0 I thought it was trite and very self-indulgent.\u00a0 Probably good for Spielberg fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately I\u2019ve been at a loss to find any sci-fi movies that I might like.\u00a0 After some searches I saw a trailer for this 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237,243],"tags":[43,2388,38,1355,265,2389],"class_list":["post-10276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review","tag-ready-player-one","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-science-fiction","tag-steven-spielberg"],"yoast_head":"\n