Ready Player One (2018)

(source)

My eleven-year-old nephew loves to play BORDERLANDS, which incidentally was featured in this trailer:

The movie is stupendous, spectacular, exciting, nail biting and a lot of other superlatives that you could think of in a positive way.  It's like Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION, but not.  It is designed for the younger viewers that even older ones would appreciated.  As one of the critics mentioned(not verbatim), it's a Steven Spielberg 1980s movie at its best.

The music and the games are from the 1970s and 1980s.  John Hughes films are mentioned and a whole lot more.

Since Ernest Cline is also one of the screenwriters, he was able to convey to Steven Spielberg how he envisioned it to be, and thankfully, Mr. Spielberg interpreted it very well and even made Mr. Cline's imagination more believable.

The movie and the story is set in the future around twenty-seven years from now.  It's a dystopian future...to live in the mind or the virtual world would make you out of touch of reality if you are not careful...that is why people who meditate, like Daito, have more peace and more in touch with their surroundings without getting distracted.

This movie is thrilling whether you are familiar with the story or not.  So what if you've read spoilers?  The way it was written, directed, acted and everything else made every scene interesting.  

It will also make you think and there were a few scenes that got to me...made me misty-eyed.

Some people stayed until after the credits to see if there's a teaser or something.  Well, we didn't stay, but we were "told" by Google that there is none.  LOL.   

Sigh.

I really love this film and so does my family.  

Would I watch it again?  

Indeed, I will!

• Every Video Game in ‘Ready Player One’ Explained By Author Ernest Cline
•  Handy Guide to the References and Easter Eggs in Ready Player One
• Here Are All the References in Ready Player One

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline 
Based on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

From the Worldwide Web: From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger. Spielberg directed the film from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. The film was produced by Donald De Line, Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah; with Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Chris DeFaria and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers. “Ready Player One” stars Tye Sheridan (“X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Mud”), Olivia Cooke (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “Bates Motel”), Ben Mendelsohn (“Rogue One – A Star Wars Story,” “Bloodline”) and T.J. Miller (“Deadpool,” “Silicon Valley”), with Simon Pegg (the “Star Trek” movies, the “Mission: Impossible” movies) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies,” upcoming “Dunkirk”). Behind the scenes, three-time Oscar winner Spielberg (“Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan”) reunited his creative team from “Bridge of Spies,” including Oscar-winning director of photography Janusz Kaminski (“Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan”), Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), Oscar-winning editor Michael Kahn (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) and Sarah Broshar (“The Post”), and costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone (“Moonrise Kingdom”). The music is by Oscar-nominated composer Alan Silvestri (the “Back to the Future” films, “Forrest Gump”). Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment present, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, and Amblin Production, a De Line Pictures Production, a Steven Spielberg Film, “Ready Player One.” Slated for release on March 30, 2018, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.