I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. At 2 hours and 20 minutes it’s on the long side, but it literally flies by and is fun start to finish. Somehow Spielberg manages to let the baby boomers in on the jokes by including tons of movie and other references from the 70’s and 80’s. The dialogue and action are fast paced and I am sure that I missed a lot of the lines during this one time viewing.
The cast is excellent and I was thrilled to see the brilliant Mark Rylance in a prominent role once again. He garnered an Oscar for his performance as a Russian spy in Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” and was delightful as the title character in Spielberg’s “BFG”.
Sir Mark is joined by the critically acclaimed Tye Sheridan (X-Men, Apocalypse), Olivia Cooke (Me, Earl and the Dying Girl), and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Bloodline).
The story takes place in Columbus, Ohio circa 2045. The world is a very different place and literally millions of people spend their time in a virtual reality space created by a cyber genius. It’s called “The Oasis” and it’s creator James Halliday (Rylance) passes on, but via video challenges his fans to solve the mystery and uncover the three keys to find the Easter Egg. Whoever successfully does so will inherit his half a trillion fortune and have total control of the “Oasis”. Let the games begin!
The visual effects are stunning throughout with so many references to films gone by, “Alien”, “Back to the Future”, “The Shining” and so many more.
The movie flips back and forth between reality and virtual reality with humans appearing as their chosen avatars in the “Oasis”.
The musical score complements the whole experience beautifully thanks to Alan Silvestri.
If you want to have some fun get out and take in this movie. Steven Spielberg is back and the “little kid” in him is alive and well.
