Story by Ashley Bolek, Reporter
Photo courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes

Since I started reading comics as well as watching superhero movies, I love to look for Easter eggs. I love to try and find the little clues to the next movie or to the universe as a whole. It doesn’t stop at superhero movies though, I will look for Easter eggs in any connected universe movie I watch. You could say then that “Ready Player One” was definitely the movie for me.

“Ready Player One” takes place in 2045 and centers on the OASIS. The OASIS is a virtual reality world where players can be anyone by creating their avatars and creating new worlds for people to visit. When the creator, Halliday (Mark Rylance), dies, he hides three keys to unlock the door to his golden Easter egg. The player who finds it receives the OASIS and Halliday’s fortune. The movie follows Wade Watts, played Tye Sheridan, as he tries to find the golden egg hidden in the OASIS.

One of the aspects of the movie I was most worried about was the CGI. Usually movies that rely too much on CGI bother me, but this one didn’t because the characters still felt real. The characters still had great facial reactions and since this was a video game world, it really looked like how a video game would look. The CGI was beautiful as well. There were small details in all the characters of how their avatars looked and when they logged off from the OASIS, they would disappear into millions of little pixels.

Another great part of the movie was the direction. The film was directed Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors in sci-fi from the 80s. For the past couple of years, he has focused on more historical movies like “The Post” so it is great to see him come back to the genre that he started in. Also with this movie full of 80s references, it only makes sense that one of the biggest sci-fi directors of the 80s would direct this movie. He did a fantastic job and made the characters’ reactions to events seem realistic.

The most unrealistic part of this movie is that all the main characters just happen to live in Columbus, Ohio. It is assumed that this gaming world is at least nationwide so how is it that they all live in the same city? Overall, the outside world plot was a little shaky and the main message was a good message, but was not incorporated very well. The message was you can’t spend too much time outside of the real world because you will start to lose touch. Without spoiling the end, I cannot talk about what the resolution of this moment is, but let’s just say the problem is not solved in the best way.

A major complaint of this movie is that it relies too much on the nostalgia factor and if there were no nostalgia, there would be nothing to the movie. I believe yes that is true, however, it would hard to believe in a world where you could be anything you want to be, that no one would be their favorite character. You can believe that the first things I would get in the OASIS are a lightsaber and a magic wand. So, yes, the movie relies on a lot of nostalgia, but it is impossible to imagine this world without it. And while that might still be a problem for some people, I know that someday, I would love to see the OASIS become a real place.

In a movie about Easter eggs, I am going to talk about my favorite Easter egg that is a non-spoiler. In the movie, Parzival, Wade’s avatar name, dresses as Wade, but in his eyes you can see a little orange-red glow. This glow is in reference to my favorite sci-fi movie “Bladerunner” about a bounty-hunter who is looking for androids that are blending in with the humans. One of the ways to tell if someone is an android is by seeing the orange-red glow in their eyes. That and the Iron Giant are my two favorite references from the movie and there are many more. If you see the movie and want to watch a video on all the Easter eggs in the movie, one of my favorite Youtube channels did a video where they found over 300 Easter eggs. The channel is called New Rockstars and I highly recommend checking them out if you enjoy breakdowns and finding all the Easter eggs.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and had fun watching it. While the plot and morals of the story are shaky, it still is a great sci-fi movie to watch. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 74 percent. For me, it is closer to an 83 percent because the movie did have problems but is overall very enjoyable. I recommend this movie if you are into sci-fi and 80s nostalgia, watch the movie. I didn’t even get into the best part of the movie because it is a huge spoiler zone, but if you are also a fan of “The Shining,” watch this movie. There is a great homage to the film. This movie is great fun and is very beautiful to look at. So, first to the key, first to the egg!