Ready Player One movie impressions: meh

Today I and Max went to see Ready Player One. We were super hyped about this movie, considering that all the VR enthusiasts are talking about it since months. “This movie will make the VR sales to skyrocket” was one widespread opinion. So we went to the cinema eager to see a movie that was able to show people the potentialities of VR, why VR is cool. We came out from the cinema saying a word: “meh”.

I have to say that I’ve not been impressed. First of all the plot is very thin and almost inexistent… it is like the plot of the movies with Steven Seagal: just 3 words to justify him kicking the a** of a lot of people. In this case, 10 words to explain why you’re watching a movie about VR, gaming and some cool stuff.

Then the whole story is trivial and full of commonplaces: he’s a nerdy poor guy that has a bad life. But he struggles to have a better life thanks to the VR challenge inside the Oasis. Then blablabla and at some point, he meets a girl and he falls in love with her. Blablabla there are evil powerful people that are against the good poor loser guy. Then blabla super-obvious happy ending: I’ve seen porn movies with more original endings. And in all of this, there are also various plot holes and some nonsense things (like for instance: at a certain point, one character dies, but the main character doesn’t almost give a single f*ck).

The characters are nothing special: the good nerd, the beautiful girl disguised as a nerdy one, the super-evil,… they are boring and so much cliché. In my opinion, there is no actual development of the various characters, nothing that makes them special, unforgettable… that makes them become idols of the people. I’ve not felt their personalities. The only character that truly appealed me was an evil warrior that works for the evil boss: I loved him. But, ehm, he is just a secondary character.

The movie is slow and Max almost fell asleep during its first half. It becomes better in the last third part when it is a bit faster and with some more interesting scenes. And in the end, we remained to see all the credits, because we expected a movie about easter eggs having a final easter egg. Let me warn you: it has not, this is disappointing.

So, the movie is just a gigantic cliché, but I didn’t feel having wasted my money because actually there are some valuable things:

• VR, VR everywhere (more on this later);
• Cameos and cool references everywhere: you can see throughout the movie references to other cult movies or games: Starcraft, Worms, King Kong, Godzilla, Halo, Mortal Kombat, Back to the Future, etc… You have no idea how many of these things there are everywhere. All the time while watching the movie you and your friends will say “Look at that, it is from Halo!”, “Wow! That is from The Mummy”, and so on. It has to be seen a lot of times to catch them all. And if you are a fan of a particular game, it is cool to see it as part of the movie that you are watching;
• There are some unexpected little plot twists happening, that give some life to a flat storyline;
• Some scenes are just W O W. The one regarding Shining is just amazing. The fight between a Gundam and a gigantic Mech-Godzilla is pure adrenaline. These scenes deserve to be seen at a cinema: they are incredible. These are the only things you’ll remember about the movie when you’ll go out of the cinema. I think I’ll dream one of them tonight!

Let’s talk about VR: seeing at the beginning of the movie a world where all people wear a VR headset for a lot of hours each day has been special: this is what I dream for this technology and what I fight for each day. And I’ve been able to see that inside a pop movie. Let me say “WOW” again. Then, in the first minutes, they show you what you can do inside the OASIS and list you a lot of awesome things: VR is actually cool.

Or maybe not: actually the people live inside OASIS because the real life is sh*t… and this is not the depiction of a positive future. And even the virtual world is dystopic: all people are concerned about virtual coins and ruin their lives to buy virtual upgrades: in my opinion, this is a dystopic virtual world. This is HOW I DO NOT WANT VR TO BE. For me, VR should be a place where people meet, do incredible stuff together and make friends and there are no damn virtual coins and achievements.

And the hardware that they use in 2045 is ridiculous… it seems the one that we have now: an Oculus Rift, some VR gloves, and an Infinadeck treadmill. Ah and at a certain point there is also a girl wearing a VIVE standalone headset (HTC is official sponsor of the movie). I really hope we can do better in 25 years.

Furthermore, apart from seeing VR headsets everywhere, once the film is shot inside the OASIS, it is like watching whatever science fiction movie. It is not truly a movie about VR, it is a movie where VR is just a mean to tell a story that happens in a world that is not real.

And in the end, the movie makes you understand that real life is better than the virtual one. And while I surely agree with this, it is not a great commercial for VR.

What I want to say is that I didn’t come out saying “Wow, I’m so proud that I work in VR, because we’re making this”… I love VR and the movie hasn’t made me more passionate and emotional towards it. I think it doesn’t truly explain its possibilities, the dream it can accomplish. Five minutes of Robo Recall or Dear Angelica are worth more than 2 hours of Ready Player One to evangelize VR. Everyone that has played Robo Recall for some minutes removes the headset that has a bright light in his/her eyes and then asks me to play it again because with that game he/she has really understood what does mean doing awesome things with your hands in a virtual world. You feel truly the emotions and you associate them with the technology. Seeing a nerd putting a headset on to enter a non-existent gaming world, in my opinion, does not. And the fifteen (!!) people that were in the cinema with us hasn’t come out talking about virtual reality.

I think that Ready Player One will spread the awareness of virtual reality but won’t make the technology cool. Everyone is talking about how Top Gun made a lot of people join the navy, but the character of Maverick is damn cool. This one is just an ordinary guy living inside a big video game. My prediction is that VR sales will increment, but won’t skyrocket because of this.

So, Ready Player One is a movie for families of gamers. My overall score for it is around 7.5, just because of the above-cited epic scenes. Without them, it would have been a 6. Regarding the VR stuff, my score is around 4.  Ah and the 3D version is not that spectacular. I advise you to go to see it, but do not expect an epic movie. Actually, I’ve read a lot of positive reviews, maybe I was expecting something too spectacular and have been disenchanted.

And with this disappointment in my heart, I wish you a nice evening 🙂

(Header image by Warner Bros)