Ready Player One Blu-ray 4K Review
2018 – Ready Player One
Warner Bros 2018
PG13 | 2hrs 20 mins | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
HD | 1080P | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
4K | 2160P | HDR10 | Dolby Vision | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
Staring: Tye Sheridan | Olivia Cooke | Ben Mendelsohn | Lean Waithe | T.J.Miller | Simon Pegg
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Ratings & Reviews
Please see here for my comments on reviewing movies.
My ratings are simple being marked out of a maximum of 5+. My reviews are biased towards the technical production aspects of the film with brief comments about the story line. Extras, sorry, that’s just not my ‘bag’.
Not having Immersive audio yet, what did the 4K version look like? Excellent, and the sound track? Very entertaining and well integrated with the action.
Entertainment: 4+
Video: 5
Audio: 4+
Technical Review – 4K UHD HDR10
Filmed using Arri Alexa Plus, and Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras, the movie was shot digitally at 2.8K with live action sequences captured on film, and finished at 2K. The visuals are quite spectacular, and the film does look sensational. From the gray and grimy almost colorless and monochromatic real world to the brilliant saturated colors of the OASIS virtual construct. This movie is a computer animation on crack! The virtual world of the OASIS is where all the action happens. Colors here are highly saturated, dynamic, vibrant and have a wide range of hues, being almost cartoonish at times. Giving way to a more subdued and darker environments during battles and in other locales. Black level, shadow detail and depth of image were excellent throughout in both the real and virtual worlds. Taken together with the tremendous level of detail, provided by the various surfaces, fabrics and sets, created a stunning visual feast. Their is plenty of eye candy to go around, some of which was almost tactile in nature. Especially the face of Percival, the main character. The virtual world of the OASIS is very sharp. Skin tones and textures in the real world are well balanced and very realistic. CGI integration was very good and there was no noise or observable compression artifacts.
Ready Player One offers a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 track that defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 in my system. The sonic onslaught of chaotic intricacies and the nuanced environmental details are interwoven throughout the action. There is a wealth of acoustic environments from the raucous and aggressive car races, gentle office and room ambience, to the final battle sequence. The use of all surrounds is not restrained with plenty of left, right and rear involvement, constantly pulling you into the action, with buzzing drones, gunfire, zipping motorcycles and locale ambience. Surprisingly the bass is less extensive and with less slam than a movie of this genre and style would demand. However, it does rise to the occasion in several action sequences, particularly towards the end of the final battle. Music was enjoyable, clean and crips with a nice sprinkling of 80’s pop music. Dialogue was clear and detailed with solid front-center imaging and prioritization.
Story Overview
Ready Player One is a science fiction action adventure directed by Steven Spielberg. It is based upon Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name. It is an excursion into the world of virtual reality where you can be anybody and do anything. It is 2045 and the world is on the edge of chaos and collapse. It is overpopulated and parts of it have taken on the appearance of a huge junk yard with rusting heaps of apartments piled on top of one and other. The only escape from this nightmare is the OASIS. A virtual world that anybody, and everybody, can enter by just be donning a pair of goggles.
Its creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) dies leaving the OASIS and his vast fortune to the first person who can find a digital “Easter Egg” hidden somewhere within the OASIS. This sparks a frenzied race to find the three clues and discover the three keys that will unlock the hidden egg. Leading the race is Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), gaming tag “Parzival”, who teams up with friends known as the “High Five”. A fantastical race fraught with danger and adventure ensues as the team tries to prevent an unscrupulous corporation, IOI, run by Sorrento (Ben Mendelson), from finding the Egg and using the OASIS to maintain the status quo. Keeping the impoverished and addicted players locked in their imaginary world and exploiting it for his corporations profit.
I still have a few reservations as to how much I did, or did not, enjoy this movie. In many ways, to me, it was an enhanced video game with the addition of live characters and scenes in order to flush out the story telling. Never the less it is a very entertaining movie. Providing spadefuls of eye candy, a fun soundtrack and an abundance of pop culture artifacts. I am sure gamers will revel in it.
