Ready Player One (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Ready Player One (2018) – S. Spielberg

Who is this movie for anyway? The Generation Z gamers, who might be attracted to its virtual reality world of avatars, coins, and competition (and who can identify with the youthful unknown stars)? Maybe. But weirdly, the virtual reality game world in question is full of pop culture references, primarily from the 1980s (in line with the soundtrack).  You would think perhaps that director Steven Spielberg is showing his age but no, apparently the source novel by Ernest Cline (who co-wrote the screenplay with Marvel maven Zak Penn) is also full of similar references.  Perhaps it would be fun to try to spot them all – if yer old, like me.  And in fact the plot itself hinges on knowledge of certain cultural artefacts (Kubrick’s The Shining, Atari’s Adventure game) that you would think Generation Z might only have passing interest in (at best).  At any rate, the story takes the form of a quest – our hero, Parzival or “Z” (in fact), must solve the game world’s three puzzle challenges – doing so first means inheriting the rights to the game (worth a trillion dollars) from the now dead programmer (who lives on in the game, of course). Z joins forces with a few friends and a new girlfriend who may have even better game skills than he. If he doesn’t succeed, an evil corporation (led by Ben Mendelsohn) might take over the game and use it for profit (by including ads!).  The world itself was created by Industrial Light and Magic and it’s hard to deny their slick prowess with special effects.  It’s all fun enough but since this is Spielberg, it feels rather “without edge” (none too deep), and safe for kids, but will they like it?