Cast – Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg & Mark Rylance

Director – Steven Spielberg

Genre – Thriller film/Fantasy

Running Time – 2h 20m

The Plot

In the year 2045, people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. OASIS creator James Halliday left his immense fortune and control of the Oasis to the winner of a contest designed to find a worthy heir. When unlikely hero Wade Watts conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-known as the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.

Ready Player One is a brilliant conceptual movie that will no doubt lend itself well to most movie fans especially sci-fi, gaming, comic book and general movie watchers with a keen eye for special effects. Mostly shot in a virtual world setting, this movie is visually spectacular and if given the chance to I would strongly recommend watching it in a 3D setting…trust you won’t regret it.

This is every much “a gamers dream movie” with most of it being carried out in a gamified environment. At times, when watching, you can’t help but feel that you are playing an adventure videogame…at least that’s how I felt. Its full of various ideas and elements that I found quite interesting with some clever connotations sprinkled across and a little bit of humour to boot.    

I have watched quite a few sci-fi and virtually based movies before, but I can’t say I have seen anything quite like Ready Player One, and that’s a good thing. What sets it apart is the level of thinking and effort put into it. But even with that said, I wasn’t particularly blown away by it. I can’t quite say why exactly but the impression I had after watching was it’s a cool and fun movie. One is for sure, it’s one I would strongly recommend to my gaming and sci-fi friends.

Ready Player One presents a fantastic idea complete with amazing visual effects that will endear itself to many especially gaming and sci-fi fans. It’s a great flick to go out and enjoy by yourself, family or with a couple of friends. In a 3D, IMAX or B-Box setting, it would be an experience and a half. Officially releasing this week, this flick gets a solid 7 out of 10 rating from me.

Special thanks to Ster Kinekor for the exclusive pre-screening.

The Premiere

East Gate Mall Ster-Kinekor cinema was the place to be last week Thursday. Second time at an IMAX experience with the first time being when it involved this small matter. I was blown away then, second time around was even better. There’s no better way to watch a movie than in IMAX, literally nothing better, even said so in this earlier post.

The curved ginormous 3D screen sucks you in and you can’t help but feel that you are one with the movie…anyone whose experienced it before will know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, well, please do yourself a favor and do it…all movies should be in IMAX now that I think about it.

The Star Wars trilogy

I’m not going to pretend to be one of those die-hard Star Wars fans who know the ins and outs of the trilogy and how each episode relates to who, where, what and how. From a general point of view though I’m familiar with most of the movies from the franchise and can confidently hold my own in an argument around it. The likes of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo etc., are characters I’m familiar with – I’ve always enjoyed the movies from the trilogy and watched them for fun – that’s exactly why I was hooked on Rogue One from the onset.

Cast – Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen & Forest Whitaker

Director – Gareth Edwards

Genre – Science fiction film/Action

Running Time – 133 minutes

And what about the movie itself?

Rogue One is the first in what is known as the Star Wars Anthology series with other films in the series expected to focus on Han Solo and Boba Fett. These (stand-alone films) will not cross over with the films of the sequel trilogy and this is clear in Rogue One. Even though it has the same look and feel of an original Star Wars movie, you get the sense that Rogue One is unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY

The plot in detail

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, or simply Rogue One, is the first Star Wars Anthology film, a standalone story set shortly before the events of the original Star Wars 2016. After the formation of the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance recruits Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) to work with a team including Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) to steal the design schematics of the Empire’s new superweapon, the Death Star.

Rogue One has an easy flow to it with a fairly uncomplicated story-line carried out by an impressive cast led by a fresh-faced Felicity Jones who does a stellar job as the lead. The movie has a PG13 rating meaning it’s perfect for most members of the family and anyone will enjoy it, this also applies to you who’s not a huge fan of the franchise but are at least open to something new that’s a good watch and don’t mind sci-fi.

Whilst watching the movie you’ll also find yourself chuckling every now and then with clever inclusions of funny moments. It doesn’t end there as the flick also comes packed with impressive amounts action sequences that are guaranteed to keep you interested. In all, the movie has a perfect balance and a little bit of everything.

I had a great time watching Rogue One. It allowed me to escape to a galaxy far far away (for those two or so hours). It is the perfect filler to keep us busy and interested until the next Star Wars offering eventually comes. Rogue One gets a well-deserved 3.5 out of 5 rating from me. Go watch it and if presented with the option, do so in IMAX!