Well, what's to be said about this movie that the entire planet doesn't know already due to the covid-related delays and the mountain of advertising that's built up in the downtime.
You know the score. Ryan Reynolds is Guy, an NPC in the GTA-clone game Free City. I would go into a little more detail about that part, but that would be patronising to the audience, and it's refreshing that the movie respects that as well. At no point does captain Exposition turn up and explain in words of less then 2 syllables what's going on at every turn. The film-makers respect that the audience they're aiming for is going to know exactly what the gist is and just lets the movie play out.
My wife's not a gamer, but my boys and I are, so she's picked up enough via osmosis to know what the gist is as well.
So, barebones but slightly spoilery plot, in addition to the obvious & well-known already. Jodie Comer plays Millie, AKA Molotov Girl, Joe Keery plays 'Keys'.But Taika Waititi steals the show as Antwan, the douchenozzle who runs the Rockstar-esque company that's hosting Free City on its servers.
SPOILER:
Millie & Keys, at one point, created a free-roaming, non-violent game set on a lush jungle island where the NPCs AI would naturally evolve & grow. They tried to sell the game to Antwan but as far as they knew, he binned it, telling them it would never make any money.
And there's pretty much all you need to know, you can guess the rest from there, but that's not to say it isn;t worth the journey. As I said earlier, at no point is this movie patronising to its audience, nor does it speak down to them. The nods and cameos and soundbites were all picked up and revelled in by not only my two boys, but every kid in the audience, who gasped when Jacksepticeye showed up on screen, laughed at Chris Evans' reaction to his shield, and actually cheered, yes cheered when a certain well-known weapon turned up.
Good Job Disney bought out all those well-established movie franchises or the licensing paperwork for all those memes would have been a nightmare.
Couple of points though. First, it's a family movie aimed at kids & teenagers. Was there really the need for that one arbitrary 'f***' out of nowehere? It really wasn't needed in the scene it was used in at all. At least Ready Player One's use had some kind of meaning to it. Also as there's been such a hiatus a lot of snippets from the trailers (including the one at the top of the page) have been excised. Just tiny bits here & there, but they're conspicuous by their absence.
Other than that, the movie is amazing. it's almost original. It's not a sequel, prequel or a remake. It's based on a well-known game franchise, but different enough to be a homage rather than a parody. If it weren't for the swearing it could be a for-all-the-family flick, Mind you, the average age of everyone in the cinema screen I attended was probably about 12, so it's hitting its audience.
I hope it does well, but also that it's left alone. Lesser studios may try to mimic the idea, but this one finishes off nicely.
Final point. I've been racking my brain as to where the melodical stings came from during the scenes where Guy & Millie were sharing 'moments'. Then it hit me like the murder train once I remembered the Disney Connection.
SPOILER:
They're from paperman - the oscar-winning short that was shown before the first Wreck-it-Ralph movie. Halfway home I suddenly remembered, bluting it out and scaring the bejeezus out of annie, who was driving at the time. Just telling you now lest a small traffic collision be in anyone's future. 9/10 - would recommend
============================
Writer`s Release
