DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg LEAD
CAST: Tye Sheridan, Ben Mendelsohn, Olivia Cooke, Mark Rylance SCREENWRITER:
Zak Penn, Ernest Cline PRODUCERS: Donald De Line, Dan Farah, Kristie Macosko
Krieger, Steven Spielberg EDITORS: Sarah Broshar, Michael Kahn MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: Alan Silvestri GENRE: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi CINEMATOGRAPHER:
Janusz Kaminski DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. LOCATION: England RUNNING TIME: 140
minutes
Technical assessment: 3
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V13
MTRCB rating: PG
The real world of the future is
grim and destitute. Can’t blame people if they wear virtual reality headsets
all day and stay in the make-believe city of Oasis, created by eccentric
computer genius James Halliday (Mark Rylance). Before he dies, he leaves behind
three riddles, each leading to a key, and finally an easter egg that will give
the finder ownership of Oasis and his riches. Years of trying to solve the
riddles have frustrated most people, except Wade (Tye Sheridan) whose virtual
self—avatar, it’s called—is Parzival, and Samantha (Olivia Cooke) aka Art3mis,
and a few others. Each of them has a motivation that is linked to the real
world. But Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) who heads IOI wants to confine people in
the virtual world. IOI is the internet highway where people play the Oasis, and
IOI rewards them with virtual coins when they win a game, and fines them when
they lose. If Sorrento gets control of Oasis, he will put millions of people in
debt and send them to labor camps to pay off their debts.
We thought we heard Apple’s
Steve Jobs in Halliday’s transcendent musings. Watch out for references to the
beginnings of the internet and online games, including Atari. The film takes
you inside a video game, with dizzying flips and drifts. If you’re not used to
video games, not only will you miss who’s chasing whom, you’ll also nauseate.
But there’s enough music from Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, and bands of the
80s to keep you nostalgically entertained. Chucky the evil doll makes an
appearance, and there’s a meticulous reconstruction of Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (warning: scary for kids).
With special effects and music, the film becomes a fusion of the past and the
future. Director Spielberg says the film is a quantum leap for social media
into the cavern of the virtual world, where people could feel without being
present. True enough, CGI captures those seductive glances, every frown, every
smile, that peculiar gait. And because it’s a Spielberg film, we pined for that
story that crushed our heart and then lifted us up the way ET and Jurassic Park did.
But the plot and the characters are deadened by the volley of special effects.
What’s good is that
screenwriter Ernest Cline, also author of the book where the film is based,
uses the riddles to unravel the life, love and regrets of Halliday. The
computer geek had a falling out with his best friend and Oasis co-creater Ogden
Morrow (Simon Pegg). Morrow married the woman Halliday loved but never had the
courage to court, let alone kiss. And as Wade and company solve the riddles,
they too discover their own values. The virtual world where we can reinvent
ourselves is beguiling. But there’s a part of us that seeks what’s true, because
feelings don’t lie, friendship and love don’t lie, and it’s in the honesty of
relating with others that we derive our humanity and happiness. And so, though
alternately painful and happy, living in the real world is still a lot more fun
and true to our nature. As for technology, it is to aid humanity, bridge
relationships even, as in the film, but not to have dominion over it. (ME
