Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Regie:
Steven SpielbergKamera:
Janusz KaminskiMusik:
Alan SilvestriBesetzung:
Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, T.J. Miller, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hannah John-Kamen, Ralph Ineson (mehr)Streaming (5)
Inhalte(1)
Die Handlung spielt 2045 in einer chaotischen Welt am Rande des Zusammenbruchs. Doch die Menschen finden Erlösung in dem gigantischen virtuellen Universum OASIS, das der geniale, exzentrische James Halliday (Mark Rylance) entwickelt hat. Als Halliday stirbt, hinterlässt er sein ungeheures Vermögen der ersten Person, die jenes Easter Egg findet, das er irgendwo in der OASIS versteckt hat. So beginnt ein Wettstreit, der die gesamte Welt in Atem hält. Ein junger Held namens Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) findet wider Erwarten erste Hinweise, und schon gerät er in eine halsbrecherische, realitätsverändernde Schatzjagd durch ein ebenso fantastisches wie geheimnisvolles Universum voller Entdeckungen und Gefahren. (Warner Bros. AT)
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The best Easter movie. You won't find more Easter eggs anywhere else. In comparison with the book on which it is based, Ready Player One has more levels of meaning and a more concise narrative, and it makes more sense. The real and digital worlds are intertwined much more organically in the film than in the original work, which we become aware of thanks to the cuts from OASIS to Ohio at key moments of the narrative, and which Wade experiences with extraordinary intensity (astonishment, fear, love). The fluidity of the story is also aided by the smooth transitions between the two sub-worlds using sound bridges and compositionally similar shots. ___ Compared to the book, the film’s exposition is highly condensed, but we learn from Wade’s voiceover everything we need to know in order to understand the story (the message that people stopped solving problems and began pretending that they don’t exist is especially telling). We may not necessarily be interested in how OASIS works (or doesn’t work) in the rest of the world, because Wade, whose perspective the narrative adheres to at first, isn’t interested himself. We later set Wade aside a few times in favour of other characters, who are more multi-dimensional than in the book. ___ In order for the protagonist to stop seeing the search for the keys as entertainment and to start understanding its real consequences, a girl who has unsettled accounts with IOI is needed. Wade’s awakening occurs during a dance sequence, which may otherwise seem like a pointless diversion from the main story (however, i-R0k also reveals the true identity of Parzival). ___ Art3mis is not just a manic pixie dream girl and a prize to be won. The protagonist’s awakening depends on her. She is also the one who drags Parzival into reality, thanks to which we realise, much earlier than in the book (which moralises in an awkwardly appended epilogue), the conflict between the real and virtual worlds. The central idea better permeates the entire narrative and is excellently connected to the story of Halliday, who is also a much livelier character than in the original (for which, among other things, the phenomenal Mark Rylanek deserves credit). ___ The relationship with Halliday is even more important to the protagonist than his bond with Samantha. He accepted the genius inventor as his surrogate father, from whom he learns what is right and what is wrong in life. Like Spielberg’s other young protagonists (Elliot, Jim from Empire of the Sun, Frank Abagnale), he finds, thanks to someone else, a replacement for his dysfunctional/non-existent home, to which he cannot completely dedicate himself, because it simply isn’t real. ___ For many viewers, Spielberg himself is a similar father figure who creates worlds to which we can safely escape from incomprehensible reality. In Ready Player One, he offers us another such world, while warning us of the risk that it could completely (i.e. irreversibly) absorb us. At the same time, we should believe that one of the huge companies (Gregarious Simulation Systems), which is on Wade’s side, thinks about consumers, while the other (IOI) pursues only its own enrichment, in which lies one of the story’s main paradoxes. ___ For me, Ready Player One is primarily a movie about returns. Returning in time, returning home, returning from the virtual world to reality. In the first challenge, Parzival must shift into reverse; the second takes place within the space of a film about a man trapped in a time loop; to complete the third challenge, it is necessary to uncover the very first video-game Easter egg, thus revealing the creator’s name. The realisation that real people are behind the virtual world is the point of Halliday’s game. Only the person who knows the details of the creator’s life relating in a certain way to how he thinks (breaking the rules) or what he most regrets (the girl he didn't kiss, the friend he lost) can win. ___ Pop-culture references serve the narrative much better than in the book. This is not an autotelic service for nerds, though it is sometimes a bit unnecessarily pointed out to us that the motorcycle over there is from Akira. For example, as Wade’s race car in OASIS has a design similar to the DeLorean in Back to the Future (with accessories from Knight Rider’s KITT), we understand that he's a fan of Zemeckis’s sci-fi comedy and it thus makes sense when he purchases from a video-game store a “Zemeckis Cube”, which later helps him to escape from a difficult situation. Many of the songs refer to specific scenes from particular films (“In Your Eyes” from Say Anything…, “Also sprach Zarathustra” from 2001: A Space Odyssey), and if you’re in the picture, you will fully appreciate the extra layer that they add to the given moment of the film. Also, other products of the (predominantly) American entertainment industry not only serve as rewards for attentive viewers, but also convey the motifs that the film presents and help bring clarity to the story. ___ From a geek’s perspective, Ready Player One is visually, intertextually and technically so sophisticated that it touched me a few times and in the end I - at the same moment as Wade – even shed a tear (and I think that not being ashamed to admit something like that is the essence of geekdom). Even from a film critic’s perspective, I did not find any fundamental shortcomings in the film. Narratively, it is a brilliant affair without dead spots, the action scenes are extremely uncluttered (even in 3D), the story has many more layers than it may seem to a naive viewer... (though you don’t have to agree with its message like I do). In short, I don’t think that my almost uncritical enthusiasm derives only from the feeling that this is a film just for me (which is a feeling that millions of other viewers probably have). 90%
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I'm not fifteen anymore, so I can’t bitch about the fact that someone can stretch a game intro to over two hours. Yes, Spielberg has his egg firmly in his hand and coddles it with the grace of a pimply nerd with a gamepad in his hand, but the exuberant visual treat sticks to your palate after just a few minutes because it can universally high-five Cline's book on the price/performance ratio. On the one hand, it wants to please everyone, but in key passages, it misses the proprieties of the mainstream, i.e., interesting characters and functional interactions. Here, the film loses out quite substantially to the (already rather futile) book, and my yawns were at times more theatrical than the actor's declamations present herein. Refined visuals and fancy special effects are a standard nowadays, but unfortunately, Ready Player One doesn't offer much more than that.
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Steven Spielberg took all of this experience from previous movies and put it into this sci-fi novelty Ready Player One. In addition to that, he’s also used all the talent that’s made his career and created a perfect blockbuster movie that anyone must love.Furthermore, he had the audacity to divide the blockbuster into two parts, real-action and an animated one that takes the cake. And then if that wasn’t enough, the animated part turns into reality to prove what kind of genius he is. Hats off! Ready Player One is simply amazing. It beautifully uses 1980s and 1990s themes and Steven’s nailed so many pop-culture references that it’s made me a little melancholic. For example, when he toys around with Kubrick’s The Shining, I was wondering whether he wasn’t overdoing it with his genius. But then again, there isn’t that many genius moments, which made me wonder whether he couldn’t have squeezed a little more out of the 1980s and 1990s. Especially music-wise, this could have been brilliant. Anyways, I get it, he simply filmed it the way he wanted to. For example, the ending had the perfect punch. Mark Rylance might have stolen a good chunk of the movie all for himself, but I didn’t really mind, I’m actually glad that Steven discovered him and even more glad that he cast him. In the Bridge of Spies, he proved to me how great an actor he is. And here he repeated it again without any problems. Splendor. And I hope this is not the last splendor as far as the Spielberg-Rylance collaboration goes. However, it’s not that the other actors don’t deserve any praise – I’ll simply say that they are on the same level as the entire movie.
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Nach langer Zeit hab´ ich bei diesem Streifen im Kino festgestellt, dass ich (nahezu) nicht zum Atmen kam. Spielberg hingegen ventiliert wie ein junger Mann. Was als Lagerhaus der Nostalgie oder ein Haufen an Fanreferenzen hätte enden können, verwandelt sich unter seinen Händen in einen frenetischen, jedoch vollkommen klaren und systematisch arrangierten Blockbuster, dem es in keinster Weise an Dampf, Emotionen, popkulturellem Wachstum mangelt, aber vor allem an etwas gänzlich Zeitgenössischem. Die Art und Weise, wie es Spielberg gelingt, auf natürliche Weise digitale Avatare ins Denkmal seiner Filmemachergeneration (The Shining Ride) einzuarbeiten, stellt den besten Beweis dafür dar, dass er über die Jahrzehnte hinweg an seiner Relevanz nicht verloren hat. Er ist in der Lage zurückzublicken, während er fest in der Gegenwart verankert ist. Beim RPO handelt es sich nicht um einen nach Atem ringenden Kampf um die goldene Zeit der Ostereier, sondern es ist eine strahlende Rakete, welche mit ihrer Durchdringungskraft selbst um eine Generation jüngere Filmemacher hinter sich lässt. Schon, ich würde das Ganze ein bisschen kurzschneiden, aber ansonsten ist es eine extrem saubere und kristallklare Fahrt. Die Realität mag zwar das Beste sein, doch hiermit lass ich mich immer wieder gerne füttern.
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Better than the original that is too broad and targeted both at young people as a genre movie and at nostalgic viewer in their thirties. The film adaptation addresses most of the shortcomings, adjusts the tasks for the screen, understands pop culture and commercial video games, withstands a deliberate and stylized digital mess, does not overuse allusions, but the final footage is to excessive. You never start to care for the characters, and it keeps being silly (especially the solutions of the first and third task, there is no need to dedicate your whole life to that, the racing "glitch" would discover even a troll during the first race and the solution of the last task would be obvious to most players 30+ at first glance). In any case, after a long time, Spielberg is back as an “adult with a soul of a child", so he plays with the format, pace of narration (OASIS versus the real world) and often even in a surprisingly imaginative way work with pop culture (especially setting of the second task, it will make you smile. Generally speaking, these horror allusion are one of the most successful ones ever). The resulting megamix of pop-cultural easter eggs, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matrix, traditionally filmed Amblin movies, Sucker Punch and The Last Action Hero is significantly better than what the trailers made us expect. It's even so good that these few annoying weak moments will be even more disappointing.
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Steven Spielberg is back in form after a very long time and he made a very nice Nerdgasm, which will take you back not only to the 80s and 90s, but also to your childhood, when you played the first game on Nintendo or Playstation. The movie already has potential cult status and we may be in for a new video game movie heyday. Tye Sheridan, the main character, and Olivia Cooke are very likable in both the real world and in Oasis, and the villain bearing the name Nolan is solid as well, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. Graphically it's very good, the action is varied and entertaining (though there could have been a lot more of it). The best of it comes right at the beginning in the form of a race where we're treated to King Kong and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, then there’s really just the grand finale, unless you count some minor action digressions. The references and Easter Eggs are very good, there are plenty of them and it's almost impossible to spot them all on first viewing. This is an enjoyable original film that is fun, brisk and nicely colored, but I would have liked more humor and more crazy action to complete satisfaction. Still, I look forward to a second viewing. 80%
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The necessary trimming of a million specific '80s references in film language (even under the guidance of the original author, Ernest Cline) transforms into a million fleeting enchantments, for which everyone must reach out and inevitably contemplate how many of them they couldn't even catch. And it's good, because blindly following a cult template would be a path to hell. Therefore, the challenges are more action-packed, straightforward, inevitably easier, and, first and foremost, easier to find. The entrances to the paths to individual keys are more about luck and intuition than encyclopedic knowledge, but after watching it for a few days, even that doesn't bother me anymore, despite such a change taking away some of Parzival's nerdiness. Similarly, the casting of Olivia Cooke takes away from Art3mis that desirable curviness (the dreamy hottie from the original remains far from the gates of adaptation) and replaces it with a girl named Samantha, but given her talent, which surpasses the rest of the youth by a bit, I almost understand this decision. And the cherry on top? Mark Rylance. Every smile, solemnity, and wink creates an immensely touching combination of life disappointments and boyish efforts. Steven Spielberg becomes the king at least once again. Nobody could have expected the transformation of a cult geekgasm into a loving celebration of human relationships.
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Why is everyone so astonished that Spielberg is a master of his craft? It’s no miracle that one of the best craftsmen and storytellers around is still able to do what he has always done. Ready Player One rather makes it clear how miserable other blockbusters in recent years have been. Even though RPO runs like clockwork, a rotten heart beats in its core. Behind the exalted adoration of 1980s pop culture, there is a tremendously depressing vision of the future. How else can we interpret a world that is unbelievably technologically advanced, yet culturally fixated on the artifacts of the eighties and nineties or, said more precisely, that voluntarily devours the pop culture of the 1980s and memorialises it in the smallest detail. Peculiarly, behind everything stands a forlorn, egocentric and megalomaniacal nerd who draws to himself and his favourite titles the absolute attention of the whole world with the siren song of mammon and power. The narrative of the film actually brings forth a terrifying vision of the futility of the lives of fans who hope that someone will remember them after they die, but then come to the horrifying realisation that the only thing that they have left behind is the large number of video games, movies and comics that they consumed. Though the author of the novel on which the film is based probably intended something different, Ready Player One shows an aging nerd’s wishful thinking that the titles he adores and that mean so much to him should have some sort of relevance in the mid-21st century. If we go even deeper, the whole film-adaptation project is a perverse myth which, when taking off the rose-coloured glasses, shows how pop culture devours itself while also shaping its followers and their idols thanks to the illusion that a fan can become a star. The film’s narrative only serves to reinforce the sad idea that obsessive knowledge of pop culture makes some sort of sense and could even be the key to success and wealth. Of course, there must also be the idealisation of pop culture as a work of inner creativity and not of industry, not to mention the illusion that its creations belong to fans and users rather than to corporations and license holders. Ready Player One combines all of these myths at the level of storytelling and in the project itself. It is impossible to view with anything other than amazement the ingenuity with which the corporate monster disseminates its gospel when it broadcasts to the world legends about how difficult it must have been to obtain licenses for individual cited artifacts and how the only one who could manage to pull it off is the universally adored Spielberg. But if we persist in our search, then one of us, the one who ties together all of the references in RPO, will be a star of the internet and, if it suits the corporate hydra, will shoot a film according to his or her own list. And the worst part of all of this is that it will actually be worth watching.
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A very free adaptation of the book by Ernest Cline, updated both for the modern generation and for movie fans. It’s been a long time since Spielberg filmed something so playful and purely for entertainment and his classic trademarks are to be seen throughout. Even if the tasks relating to the keys are totaling different, the core of the story remains the same and it is Mark Rylance’s acting that carries the movie on his shoulders. His Halliday has the perfect parameters of endearing madness and so his classic truths about life don’t sound banal. The message that the Internet isn’t everything isn’t as important as the unbelievable serving of entertainment that a mass of fans enjoy during re-screening and looking for “their" thing. The action is awesome and packed to bursting with references. There is something for everyone (in my case the Godzilla theme), what worked for you?
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The trend of video-game CGI fests has also caught the great Steven Spielberg and the result is positive overall, though I can’t shake the feeling that Ready Player One is unnecessarily frantic and cluttered in places. In general, one does not suppose that Spielberg would want to shock anybody after so many years of A-list filmmaking in Hollywood with self-serving action or thrilling effects at any price, but there are quite a few situations that are a bit on the edge. Neither the instant romance nor the final battle avoid the typical clichés. The winks to movie classics, a couple of which are the work of the creator of this blockbuster himself, are fine, but those 140 minutes get pretty grinding towards the end and the comedy interludes were nothing to write home about. I enjoyed more the slower, more fateful and more audiovisually polished Tron Legacy by Kosinski, whose digital set design and sense of visuals are further away, as opposed to his directorial ability to grasp a decent script.
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Ein großer Film (nicht nur, aber hauptsächlich) für große Kinder. Obwohl ich versucht habe, meine Erwartungen zu zügeln, habe ich mich trotzdem riesig gefreut.… Und schließlich noch mehr bekommen, als ich mir erhofft habe. Eigentlich kann man nicht sagen, dass Ready Player One voller Verweise und Anspielungen ist, weil das Ganze ein großer Verweis ist. Oder ein Easter Egg, wenn Sie wollen. Falls Sie zu denjenigen gehören, die z. B. bei Falsches Spiel mit Roger Rabbit die einzelnen Szenen gestoppt und im Bild alle anwesenden Zeichentrickfiguren gesucht haben, werden Sie diesmal die Stopptaste nicht in Ruhe lassen. Im Film geht es aber natürlich nicht nur um Verweise. Steven Spielberg hat vor allem einen sehr unterhaltsamen Film gedreht, der – falls man auf der gleichen Wellenlänge ist – ständig echte Begeisterung auslöst. Und ich hoffe, dass es von solchen Zuschauer*innen so viel wie möglich geben wird. Der Film ist seiner Vorlage treu geblieben – trotz vieler Änderungen ist das Herz da. Und der Ausklang des Films ist meiner Meinung nach sogar noch besser als der vom Buch, weil er nicht so kompliziert ist.
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After the third screening, I have to change my original opinion – Ready Player One IS the perfect family blockbuster. A film told with an ease and precision comparable to Jurassic Park or Inception. Absolute Cinema Experience.
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It kind of scares me that this is at least the third time I've used the term "likely pinnacle of contemporary nerd-service culture" in the past year, and if I ever use it again, I really don't know what that movie might look like. Fortunately, unlike Marvel (which insidiously still mostly references itself, creating its own sect of select artificially created nerd-in jokes), Spielberg can exploit hundreds of thousands of products of his own intellectual property at speeds and in contexts that spare the unknowing viewer too much suffering (except perhaps the unfortunate ones who missed Kubrick's The Shining), and even if you haven't seen/played the seventy referenced titles that appear during the car chase at the beginning, I guarantee you'll be on the edge of your seat. That sequence is incredible, and in turn reminded me of one of the only two films in the world that isn't alluded to in Ready Player One, namely Ben-Hur. Otherwise, the constantly shrieking music suddenly goes completely silent, edged out by sounds only of impact and destruction. The race is practically devoid of slow motion, despite several things happening in motion at once during the race, and most importantly, unlike in Speed Racer, everything involved has mass, so the physics don't disappoint. In the end the film can't catch up to that scene and honestly I spent the rest of the film hunting for any pluses to keep it at five stars. Sadly, Spielberg's formal mastery notwithstanding (note the dialogue scenes, which are often in one or two shots where the camera reveals in fluid motion the things and characters that need to be seen in the scene, and on top of that there's usually something crucial going on in the background), it's the entire universe behind the curtain where you actually realize that the entire outside world took place in a single backyard, consisting of the headquarters of an evil corporation, the slum where the protagonist lives, and this long grey street running between them where people run around in goggles, and though they’re mimicking all the running, fighting, and flipping going on in virtual reality, somehow they always stay on the sidewalk, don't step on anything pointy, or otherwise hurt themselves. Not to mention that the film doesn't offer much in the way of alternate readings and doesn't meaningfully go beyond the message of "have fun, but remember what really matters: sunshine, health, friends, and love. Oh, and Corporations Are Bad, Ltd." In this respect the film is still outdone by the Hollywood satire Sucker Punch (especially the SE) or the radically bleak vision of the loss of humanity in Gamer. Moreover, Ready Player One still comes to the table with a secondary trap, which is the painful experience of public screenings where everyone has to show off with affected laughter that they picked up on this reference or that. Dear God! PS: when I'm master of the universe, the first thing I'm going to ban is the use of classic song hits during explosive finales, I'm worried I'm going to have those fuckers on my plate all the time now [EDIT 2022] It's a completely phenomenally filmed piece of shit that’s pretending to be as non-geek as possible, with a plot that hinges on the current artificial vision of nerddom as something you can ultimately monetize in the real world and get a leg up on everyone else. Which is fictional corporate bullshit that was created so they could make MCU and SW movies over and over again with merch attached. The essence of nerddom on the contrary is to consciously devote all your energy and time to something that doesn't equip you for the real world, quite the opposite in fact. I can't even imagine how cretinous the book must be.
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I don’t think I would enjoy the film so much if I didn't like playing video games. This way I had a great time. Great visuals accompanied by retro music, lots of great action and a fairly simple story, which gave me enough time to watch all that frenzy. There were even some hilarious moments. I would have given five stars if it hadn’t been for the enthusiastic applause of the crowds and the equally enthusiastic fight for truth and love.
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CONTAINS SPOILERS. I only really have one complaint. I wasn't too keen on the whole "evil corporation wants to steal and control the most widely used and popular virtual reality game" angle, because it struck me as exactly the opposite. Ready Player One is first and foremost a gorgeous digital epic about a deeply sincere tribute to pop culture. In it, an evil corporation almost archetypally embodies a human species that can never understand any fictional world, and therefore seeks to control it through subversion and violence. While it might seem like that the final catharsis is how extremely knowledgeable pop culture experts handed to a giant corporate entity, for me the catharsis of this film is represented by something else. I see it as a much more personal experience, one that is crowned with the ultimate victory (i.e., a successful end of the game) and a reunion with the last living great uncle of the OASIS. The successful shutdown of the corporate adversary is obviously important in the plot, but completely negligible in terms of emotion and that very catharsis. For Steven Spielberg has made (with all the technical panache typical of him) an extremely personal film from which a genuine love of pop culture radiates in almost every shot. I honestly can't imagine who could have done it better with such grace, sense, and amazing emotions. I didn't expect this late Spielberg to take me this far. Seen in the cinema, then at home in 2D, about to watch it in 3D and then UHD. Bravo, Steven!
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It's admirable how Steven Spielberg, at his age, can translate youthful material onto movie theater screens. However, I'm not too thrilled with this film. If it were half an hour shorter, I probably wouldn't have been so bored, but it would still be a hollow story. (55%)
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A massive surprise! The mediocre marketing campaign and unimpressive trailers reduced my expectations to the bare minimum. However, the rumors about one of the most entertaining sci-fi adventure movies did the trick and I ended up going to the cinema with the simple goal of enjoying myself. Well, I sure did, and I got exactly the type of movie that, even if it lasted three hours, it would still be entertaining. A movie with the largest number of pop culture references per square meter and generally made with such a love for film, games and music. It's basically a tonic for the soul. Clear visuals, great soundtrack, great cast, endless adventure and, above all, pure entertainment. The best Spielberg film in at least the last 15 years.
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