READY PLAYER ONE : Tuesday 3rd April 2018.

'READY PLAYER ONE' which I saw earlier this week at my local multiplex is the eagerly awaited, keenly anticipated and much hyped latest offering from Producer and Director Steven Spielberg. Based on the bestselling and highly regarded 2011 Sci-Fi book of the same name by Ernest Cline, this film was released in the US last week too, cost a cool US$175M to make, has so far recovered US$239M and has garnered generally positive Press. Full of pop culture references to the '80's, '90's and early 2000's including several nods to earlier Spielberg works, as well as cutting edge CGI, this film will be a feast for the visual senses and overload for all the movie and video game geeks out there. Cline is reported to be working on a sequel to the novel, but it remains to be seen if this will translate to a follow up film, or if Spielberg would even Direct.

Set in 2045 with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse due to overpopulation, climate change, pollution and corruption, the main centres of population have become slum like cities with make shift homes being stacked upon each other forming huge towers reaching skywards. Known as 'Stacks' it is here we find Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) living in the burgeoning city of Columbus, Ohio, with his aunt and her not so pleasant boyfriend, having lost both his parents in his younger years.

To escape the desolation of their meagre existence, the people have found solace in the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), an expansive globally interconnected virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance) where those users can engage in work, entertainment, relaxation and education from the comfort of their own homes, and the vast majority of the population do. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune and ownership of OASIS to the first person to find a digital Easter Egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. Three challenges confront the game contestants before reaching the elusive Easter Egg, open to anyone playing in the OASIS, and those specifically entering the game challenge are known as 'Gunters' (egg hunters). Wade has modified on an old beat up panel van buried amidst a car wreckers yard that houses his game gear, where he escapes to play in the OASIS.

In the OASIS Wade assumes a different identity and a game name for his avatar, Parzival. He is good friends with fellow gamer, virtual mechanic and Gunter Aech (aka Helen Harris, played by Lena Waithe) who is male inside the game, but female out of it. Their first challenge is a road race (Parzival's car of choice is a DeLorean - a nod to 'Back to the Future') over an ever changing city scape which no one has ever completed with death defying obstacles which involves contending with a rampaging T-Rex and King Kong amongst other things. Here he meets for the first time fellow Gunter Art3mis (aka Samantha Cook, played by Olivia Cooke), and before reaching the finish line and getting eaten by a marauding King Kong is saved from being 'zeroed out' by Parzival, which would reset the avatar's character progression. From this point on the two form a close bond.

After numerous attempts to reach the finish line over repeated occasions and always with the same outcome, Parzival visits the OASIS virtual library in which is recorded in audio and visual every single aspect of Halliday's life, in the hope of finding a clue to winning the first challenge. Parzival learns that Halliday felt remorse and regret over parting company with his early business partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg) over a personal matter involving a girl, who would later become Morrow's wife. Halliday makes a statement about travelling backwards, really fast, which suggests an answer to Parzival about the start of the race. At the next race, the vehicles are all assembled on a starting line, and as the off is given all cars accelerate forward, leaving Parzival's car standing. He shifts into reverse and heads at break neck speed towards a solid wall, which then opens up to reveal a virtual road under the race cars speeding above, only free of all the challenging obstacles. He crosses the finish line and is greeted by Halliday's avatar Anorak, the first of three keys and a clue to the next challenge. His friends Aech, Art3mis, and their friends Daito (aka Toshiba Yoshiaki, played by Win Morisiaki) and Sho (aka Akihide Karatsu, played by Philip Zhao) all cross the finish line, and are the first five names to appear on the leader board, becoming known collectively as 'The High Five'.

With the leaderboard now occupied for the first time in more than five years, the CEO of IOI (Innovative Online Industries) Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) who over the years has amassed a army of debt laden players known as Sixers (because of their six digit ID numbers) suddenly becomes more acutely interested in the game, wanting to reach the Easter Egg for his own ill gotten gains and to win full control over OASIS before them pesky kids do. Eager to learn their real life identities so that they can be eliminated in the real world, Sorrento engages virtual Bounty Hunter, magical artefacts and arms dealer i-R0K (T.J.Miller) to hunt down Parzival.

i-R0K overhears Parzival revealing his real name to Art3mis in a virtual nightclub, which in turn leads Sorrento to him with an invitation for untold riches if he surrenders his quest and leads him to the Easter Egg. Needless to say Parzival refuses Sorrento's invitation. In return Sorrento sends his Head of Operations F'Nale Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen) to track down Wade and kill him in The Stacks. But Wade isn't there, and instead wipes out the stacked tower where his Aunt and her boyfriend live killing them, and others in the process.

Wade is rescued by associates of Art3mis in the real world and taken to a hideout in Columbus, not far from The Stacks. Here he learns of Art3mis real world identity, Samantha Cook. Together they ponder over the second clue and revisit the OASIS virtual library, there learning that Halliday had once dated Karen 'Kira' Underwood (Perdita Weeks) who later went onto become Morrow's wife and the reason for their business split. Parzival wins a bet with The Curator of the virtual library - a 25c coin, about any lasting memories of Kira, which Parzival is then given access to, revealing the entrance to the second quest. That quest takes The High Five team to a old movie theatre and a screening of 'The Shining' and inside the Overlook Hotel (beautifully and faithfully recreated) where Art3mis wins the second key and the clue to the third challenge. The other four bring up the rear and each secure a key, so solidifying their places on the leaderboard. The third challenge it is revealed leads them to Anorak's Castle, located on Planet Doom.

Zandor and the IOI henchmen discover the Gunter's hideaway and kidnap Samantha with Wade making a narrow escape, being rescued by Helen, Toshiro and Akihide. Back in the OASIS, Parzival learns that Sorrento and i-R0k have encircled Castle Anorak in an impenetrable force field dome that prevents access to complete the quest. This is maintained by IOI and a large team of Sixers including an imprisoned Samantha who is forced to comply against her will. Parzival transmits a message to all OASIS gamers that their help is needed on Planet Doom to bring down the force field, thwart Sorrento and claim the ultimate prize. The gamers rise up and lend their support to Parzival arriving en masse on Planet Doom. Headed up by Aech, Daito and Sho on Doom together with The Iron Giant engineered by Aech, back in the real world Samantha is able to make her escape, create a distraction and rejoin the other four in the OASIS where she is able to bring down the force field by reciting the magic spell that initiated it.

Inside Castle Anorak, Parzival finds himself in The Atari Room staring down at a long line of Sixers all playing different Atari 2600 games trying to determine which was Halliday's favourite and therefore where the last key is hidden. But Sixer after Sixer fails, all being zeroed out. Back in IOI an operative determines that 'Adventure' must be the game that was Halliday's favourite, so up steps another hopeful Sixer to the game console. He successfully negotiates the maze going the distance but ultimately is zeroed out too.

Parzival steps up to the game console but is intercepted by Sorrento's avatar. The pair fight, with Parzival gaining the upper hand as Sorrento activates 'The Cataclyst' device which zeroes out each and every single player on Planet Doom including himself and i-R0k. However, Parzival lives, granted an 'extra life' on the reverse of the 25c coin given to him by The Curator at the virtual library. He continues with the Adventure game and successfully completes it by locating its own Easter Egg hidden within the game. At this point Halliday's avatar Anorak appears and hands down the third and final key to Parzival, which he uses to unlock a gate, with the other two keys, into a huge room adorned with riches and a giant Easter Egg sat atop a throne like structure.

Therein Anorak presents Parzival with a contract to sign, but in seeing the contract he recognises that it is the same as presented to Ogden Morrow upon his termination, and so refuses to sign. The avatar of Anorak turns into a projection of the adult Halliday with his young childhood self too in the bedroom where he spent his childhood years, playing the latest computer games and learning his craft. Halliday reveals that this was the final test, centering around his greatest regret in life. He also gives Parzival the chance to wipe out the OASIS completely and erase everything it stands for, by simply pressing a Big Red Button, but Parzival declines that invitation. Instead, Halliday hands over a golden glowing Easter Egg and assigns his personal fortune of half a trillion dollars over to Wade. At that the adult Halliday and his younger self turn and leave the room by the door.

Sorrento and Zandor are arrested having given chase to The High Five all the way to The Stacks in a last ditch attempt to thwart Parzival's success in the OASIS. Wade announces that he will co-control the future of OASIS with his other four friends, and offers a now much older Morrow a consultancy to help them run the company which he gladly accepts on a salary of 25c - revealing that his avatar was The Curator within the virtual library.

This is a good fun film which I enjoyed . . . a lot! It is chock full of '80's and '90's cultural references that are touchstones for anyone from that era. Drawing movie and gaming fandom inspiration from the past to shape the future malaise which it does with style and technical wizardry, but with little regard for the future dystopian world of 2045 and the cultural problems facing the here and now. Visually this is a stunning film with graphics and effects that are mind blowing, artfully rendered and with a painstaking attention to detail (the Overlook Hotel sequence especially), and so too of the avatars of The High Five also. Look out for nods to John Carpenter's 'Christine', 'The A-Team', 'The Iron Giant', 'The Shining', the Batmobile from the '60's 'Batman' television series, 'King Kong', 'Jurassic Park', 'Back to the Future', Freddy Kruger, Betelgeuse, Chucky to name but a few, and a thumping soundtrack straight from that time too. The effects are at times overwhelming however, as you concentrate to keep apace of the action, the cultural references, and the characters from the past, and whilst this is a movie about a globally interconnected virtual reality environment, a little more time and effort concentrating on the human element of The High Five characters in the real world rather that their avatars may not have gone amiss. Nonetheless, Spielberg has added another rollercoaster action adventure spectacle to his filmography that only serves to demonstrate his mastery over the craft which he was instrumental in defining. Catch it on the big screen . . . you'll be pleased you did.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-