I’ve never heard of Ready Player One so I had to do a little research. Turns out it was a Science fiction novel written by Ernest Cline (his first novel) and published in 2011.
The story takes place in a Dystopian future where the biggest thing going is a virtual reality game. As the trailer shows, the creator of this game left a valuable easter egg for some lucky (or unlucky) player to discover..awarding them a fortune. If one happened to have seen the movie Gamer (2009) starring Gerard Butler they might wonder about the similarities.
The book ( and very likely the film ) is a pop/gaming culture smorgasbord where classic games and movie elements are incorporated into the gameplay. It looks like Steven Spielberg is taking full advantage of this and the current nostalgia wave. The trailer gives us classic 80’s hits like Van Halen’s “Jump” and references to 80’s movies like Back To The Future.
I’m not the kind of person who geeks out over easter eggs. Chun Li was my favorite character to play in Street Fighter, but seeing her run by on the screen does absolutely nothing for me in the narrative sense. Gimmicks don’t work on me. Not to say this is all the film will be, I’m hopeful Spielberg will deliver an entertaining story. I hope.
Ready Player One starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, and Simon Pegg signs on March 30, 2018
