Ready Player One is one of my favorite novels of the last five years, and I was not hugely impressed like most people with the first trailer because it diverged significantly from Ernest Cline’s novel (which doesn’t need much tinkering). A lot of it stems from a distrust of Spielberg with blockbusters, because he’s not a blockbuster director anymore. Somewhere along the way he lost the childhood spark of adventure that infused the films that made him a household name, and I’d love it if this was the film that got it back, but not at the expense of what is amazing source material. I did like this trailer better. We’ll have to see when the film opens in March 2018.
Set in the near future, Ready Player One follows outcast teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan), who escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the OASIS, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When eccentric billionaire who created the OASIS dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cook, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, and Ben Mendelsohn.
The first trailer did nothing for me. This one makes the film look like a total return to form for Spielberg. We’ll see if that’s just marketing, but while I have not read the book the premise, and the entire concept of the Oasis, sounds like the kind of thing Steve would have been attracted to back in the 80’s, if the technology had been there, and science fiction had perfectly produced the world we live in now.
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I meant, “if science fiction had perfectly PREDICTED the world we live in now.”
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I lost faith in Spielberg’s ability to make these kind of films a long time ago, but it would be nice if this was a return to form. If not, he needs to just stop trying and make quality serious films and accept that’s who he is at this point in his life (and yes, that includes not directing Indy 5).
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