By Amani Salahudeen
Correspondent
The action-packed film “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel of the same name, took theaters by storm on March 29.
Wade Watts (Ty Sheridan) is the 18-year-old protagonist and narrator of the movie. His deceased parents named him after a superhero alternate name — similar to Peter Parker, Clark Kent or Wade Wilson.
The dystopian movie is set in 2045. Characters venture into the OASIS, a stunning 3-D video game dream world, in order to escape their own realities by assuming an anonymous identity with an avatar.
“In 2045, there’s nowhere left to go except, The OASIS,” Watts said.
Maverick James Halliday (Mark Rylance) created the highly popular game. When Halliday died, he told the rest of the world that whoever finds the three keys can open a gate with an Easter egg inside that contains his massive fortune.
People spent hours of their time in an attempt to find the keys, but even after a long time, no one was able to obtain them. Eventually, many accepted defeat.
Watts was still determined to find the Easter egg that Halliday left in the game. In the game, he goes by his screen name, Parzival, and teams up with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), Aech (Lena Waithe) and Sho (Philip Zhao).
Parzival and company also fight against Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who wants to use the OASIS as a theme park for the wealthy.
This movie demonstrates how far people are willing to go in order to join the ranks of the wealthy and powerful.
The film’s visuals were enthralling, and the fast-paced film has action scenes that anyone can enjoy.
There were very few slow scenes overall. For the most part, everything was a whirlwind adventure, and the video game designers put a great amount of thought into creating the OASIS.
When Parzival first meets Art3mis in game, he is quick to tell her avatar-to-avatar that he is in love with her. However, she is not impressed.
Art3mis tells him that he only sees the parts of her that she decides to show him on screen. This assumes that Watts would be disappointed if he saw Art3mis in the real world.
In the beginning of the film, Wade is wrapped up in this game, much like everyone else, but by the end of the movie, Watts tells inventor Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg) that he plans on sharing the fortune with his friends rather than keeping it to himself, which demonstrates his character development.
As Morrow said, “The OASIS was never supposed to be played by one person.”
Despite the captivating video game experience, Wade realizes the value of living in the real world, and spending time with people like Samantha Cook, the real person behind Art3mis.
“Ready Player One” is a must-see for Marvel or action movie fans, but also for those who have not read the book or are not into video games.
