Ready Player One

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It’s the year 2045, the world is over-populated, life is a struggle for most people and so they enter the virtual reality world known as the OASIS to escape the tedium and hardship of their everyday reality. In the OASIS, pretty much anything goes. You can be anyone, do anything and everything is possible.

Hidden inside the OASIS by its eccentric creator, James Halliday, are three keys that lead to the ultimate Easter Egg which is Halliday’s fortune and total control over the OASIS.

Here we meet our hero Wade Watts who, as his virtual reality alter-ego Parzival, begins his journey through the cryptic labyrinth of Halliday’s creation to find the egg before Ben Mendolhson’s evil Nolan Sorrento as the head of rival corporate software gang known as IOI can get his grubby mitts on it, keen to exploit it for its full financial worth.

Wade teams up with a colourful array of characters during a series of challenges in a frenetic race against time played out to an outstanding soundtrack featuring Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen and an original score from Alan Silvestri including a glorious use of his own Back to the Future jingle.

With too many pop culture references to mention, director Steven Spielberg has crafted yet another classic film. His ability to create tension and his meticulous attention to detail is in full flow and he slips between the real world and fantasy with style, wit and skill making Ready Player One a visual feast.

Tye Sheridan as Watts and Olivia Cooke as Samantha / Art3mis are both extremely charismatic and likeable as the two leads and they’re supported by a strong supporting cast including Mendolhson, Lena Waithe as Aech, Mark Rylance as Halliday, Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow whilst TJ Miller, as i-R0k, provides excellent comic relief.

If you’ve ever wanted to see a DeLorean and the A-Team van chased by the Jurassic Park T-Rex and King Kong, then Ready Player One is the film for you. Possibly slightly too long, but a joyous adventure that shows why Spielberg is still the best at this type of film.