BENJAMIN HAYLETT
staff writer

Steven Spielberg’s latest masterpiece, “Ready Player One” is his true return to the summer blockbuster movies that gave him his start in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is exciting, suspenseful, compelling and above all, just plain fun to watch for people of all ages.
“Ready Player One” takes place in Columbus, Ohio, in 2045.
The future of 2045 is very different from our present day, however. Overpopulation across the globe has caused widespread poverty for much of the world’s people, but they have one source of refuge, the OASIS.
The OASIS is a virtual reality video game created by the recently deceased James Halladay.
While in the OASIS, players can do whatever they want and be whoever they want to be.
After Halladay’s death, he leaves clues to find an Easter egg he hid somewhere in the OASIS. If players find this Easter egg, they gain total control of the OASIS and inherit Halladay’s massive fortune.
“Ready Player One” follows the story of Wade Watts, a nobody from Columbus who is trying to unlock the secrets of the OASIS and find a better life for himself.
Along the way, he teams up with a colorful cast of characters that help him on his quest to find the egg and stop the OASIS from falling into the hands of the greedy company Innovative Online Industries.
Spielberg brought his signature genius to the movie, while employing some techniques that have become popular in the past couple years.
The expert pacing and storytelling that Spielberg is known for is complemented by the phenomenal cinematography. Large battle scenes are shot without very many cuts to allow the viewer to become fully immersed in the fight.
At no point was I left guessing what was happening because of shaky camera work or sloppy cinematography.
The visual effects of “Ready Player One” are breathtaking. Every shot inside the OASIS is almost photorealistic CGI, the likes of which I have never seen. I would argue that the effects in “Ready Player One” rival and may surpass the latest “Star Wars” film.
Each character in the OASIS looks just enough like a video game character to still be believable, but not so much that they fall into the uncanny valley and just look creepy.
“Ready Player One” is filled with 1980s and 1990s movie and television references; it is likely that your inner child will at least be excited to see something on the screen. “Back to the Future,” “King Kong,” “Jurassic Park,” “Excalibur,” and “The Shining” are just a small sampling of the movies “Ready Player One” expertly ties into its overall story.
I for one had a ball trying to see just how much I could recognize in the background, and I am absolutely sure I could watch it a hundred times and still find something new that I did not see in the previous 99.
With that being said, I would like to acknowledge a misconception I have read all over the internet surrounding this movie. You can have zero knowledge of 1980s pop culture and still understand and enjoy “Ready Player One.” The main plot points of the story are not dependent on knowing what some random object is, but rather it builds upon the characters it establishes early on.

BENJAMIN HAYLETT
[email protected]