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Halliday functions as a mentor/father figure to Wade.
The problem is that hes dead.
He embodies the movies double-edged perspective on immersive fandom: It both liberated and stunted him.
By rights, Wade should be that successor, OASISs King Arthur.
The road to a higher truth begins with an avatar watching a ghost.
Two avatars, actually.
Theres an honorable history of nerds getting politicized by smart, pretty girls, and thats Wade.
Much is made of the fact that Sorrento is not a fanboy.
Which is what its all about, really.
The good guys bond over movies and books and old-fashioned video games.
On a cyber-date with Art3mis, Parzival wears a suit fromThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.
Yes, the most nakedly wannabe cult movie ever made finally has its cult!
Clines novel is full of tech-speak and gamer minutiae, and thats in the movie, too.
(Cline wrote the screenplay with Zak Penn.)
But Spielbergs heart is clearly in the movies he can raid and the monsters he can repurpose.
King Kong guards the first finish line.
Theres a lengthy excursion into Stanley Kubricks Overlook Hotel maybe the movies high point.
The climax features the Iron Giant squaring off against Mechagodzilla.
Who was in charge of getting access to licensed characters?
Youd need some kind of doctorate toget all the Easter eggs.
The first surpassing he does handily.
Even with so much clutter in every frame, the storytelling is clean, the action crisp and economical.
Theres not much wrong with the movie on its own terms.
But theres nothing great about it, either.
Its all other peoples tropes animated by armies of computer artists.
He must have been starved for making something by hand.
The utopian gamer culture is fake to its marrow.
Maybe he even believes that.
But the artist in him cant quite make that comforting lie soar.
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the name of the gaming system as ORACLE.
Ready Player Onehas been nominated for a 2019 Oscarin Best Visual Effects.
