"First to the key! First to the egg!"

(Contributed by Karli Thomas)

When my dinner plans fell through on the same night that Sid was going to see Ready Player One, he invited me to join him. I hadn't planned on seeing the movie as I had heard mixed reviews and hadn't read the book. But, I love popcorn, I love going to movies and I love Sid, so I said yes, and joined him.

I am so glad that I did. The movie was full of delightful surprises. Not having read the book meant that I didn't know what I was missing, or if there was even anything to miss. The joy of spotting characters and hearing references from the 80s was fresh in a way it couldn't have been if I'd read the book.

 

Early on in Ready Player One there is a race sequence that plays a lot like a car chase. Full disclosure, there's not much I find more boring in movies than car chases. The longer a car chase goes on, the more bored I get. Car chases are where I find myself wondering what I should make for dinner, or if I should add pink streaks to my hair, or if I should rearrange the furniture in my living room.  (The two exceptions to this are The Italian Job and any chase sequence in any Bourne movie.) The race sequence in Ready Player One was exactly the right length to hold my attention and full of interesting extras to keep me entertained. It was during this sequence that I had the thought "Well, this is fun!".

 

And the fun continued!  The action sequences were interesting and the pace of the film neither rushed or dragged. The Shining sequence edged right up to 'too long' but didn't step over that line. The High Five were sweet and innocent and full of tame rebellion. I felt as though I was watching a good YA novel unfold on the screen. After the credits finished rolling and the lights in the theatre came back on, I turned to Sid and said "I loved that! It was just pure fun!"

In the days since seeing Ready Player One, I find myself thinking about it and wanting to talk about it. To me this is the the true test of a movie's enjoyability (not a real word, but it should be). If you haven't read the book, don't! Enjoy watching it unfold as a movie instead!

- Karli

Thanks for an excellent guest posting, Karli!  On behalf of the movie Easter Egg crowd, reading from left to right, you will note that the race starting line image above features 1) The Mach Five car driven by Speed Racer in the anime of the same name; 2) the classic television series Batmobile, and Mad Max's V-8 Interceptor from The Road Warrior.

 - Sid