BREAK FREE.
In 2045, Ohio teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) takes part in a high-stakes game where the reward means ownership of OASIS, a virtual-reality platform that most people on Earth take part in. Steven Spielberg is the right person to capture the essence of the novel, having created much of the pop-culture world that both the book and the film refer to in numerous ways. That mythology, including an eye-popping visit inside Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), makes this ride a visual knock-out in 3D. The action is overwhelming… but the same cannot be said of the characters or the basic story.
2018-U.S. 140 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay: Zak Penn, Ernest Cline. Novel: Ernest Cline. Music: Alan Silvestri. Cast: Tye Sheridan (Wade Watts/Parzival), Olivia Cooke (Samantha Cook/Art3mis), Ben Mendelsohn (Nolan Sorrento), T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance.
