By George Haerle

For The Daily World

If anyone were going to adapt Ernest Cline’s book “Ready Player One,” it would be Steven Spielberg. The legendary director seems to be back in true form with his adaptation of this pop culture-laden sci-fi adventure into a popcorn movie classic.

Both film and book depict a future in which the world has reached dystopia. To cope with the depressing truths of reality, much of humanity retreats to a virtual reality world called the Oasis — a living video game where anything is possible. When the creator of the Oasis dies, a final challenge he constructed inside the game is revealed: The finder of a hidden treasure will win his fortune and control of the Oasis.

Also like the book, the film follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan, who also plays his Oasis avatar, Parzival), a teenager living in a very sad rendition of Ohio where RV trailers are stacked on top of each other to create towers of pseudo condos for poor people.

Wade and his friends and fellow adventurers — Artemis (Olivia Cooke), Aech (Lena Waithe), Daito (Win Morisaki) and Sho (Philip Zhao) — don’t know one another’s real identities; they are masked by the avatars everyone has created inside the Oasis. What they do share is the quest to find the “Easter egg” that would change their lives.

While there’s a little less substance to “Ready Player One” than some of Spielberg’s other works, it is loads of fun without a whole lot to have to think about. Aside from the concept itself, the plot is pretty straightforward with a “beat the bad guys to the treasure” sort of quest that the director has done so well in the past.

The characters aren’t deep by any means, but the casting is perfect and their delivery gives each enough personality for the audience to like and invest in. This is key to a movie like this: There’s so much concept, swashbuckling and roller-coaster set pieces that the characters are only really explored as far as their basic backstory and a glimpse into the state of their lives. Everything else comes from their personality and chemistry with each other.

It’s comparable to the 1985 Spielberg-produced film “The Goonies,” where none of the kids’ characters goes deeper than their interaction, dialogue and comedic delivery — but all of these elements make the absolute most of the little time the movie has to dwell on each character.

The most developed character is in fact the creator of the Oasis, Halliday (Mark Rylance). Although he dies in the prologue, he is present throughout the film in flashbacks and as his digital avatar inside the Oasis, the wizard Anorak. Rylance plays Halliday with an introverted, tragic awkwardness that is both endearing and sad, while the few brief appearances of Anorak depict a warm and friendly master that Halliday probably wished he had been.

While the romance between Parzival and Artemis is sort of adorable in a corny sort of way, the Halliday backstory and presence throughout the Oasis are the underlying heart of the picture, as the world he has created is a true reflection of everything he ever adored (and loathed) in his life.

But the best part about the movie is simply the adventure through frenetic and giggle-inducing set pieces, loaded with movie, video game and pop culture references that would require 20 viewings to catch them all. Spielberg thankfully isn’t too self-referential, paying homage to the works of other great filmmakers — the biggest of which, surprisingly, is Stanley Kubrick, with an extended reference to “The Shining” that is handled masterfully in a way that makes you laugh more than it will scare you.

It’s not perfect, but if you’ve read the source material you already know it isn’t meant to be anything other than a fun ride; and this film can’t be described any other way. There are a few bits of really cheesy dialogue (which actually seems fitting as it tries to replicate popcorn films from the ’80s). There are some jokes that fall flat, and the characters don’t carry a huge amount of depth aside from being likable. And sometimes there are so many references on screen at a time from different films, video games and comics that it becomes a challenge to spot them all while also paying attention to the advancement of the plot.

But even for what it’s lacking in substance, it will still be like the best cotton candy you ever had: sweet, light and satisfying.

“Ready Player One” is not nearly on the same level as Spielberg’s classics — “Jurassic Park,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or even “E.T.” — but it still has that grand, pulpy, adventure feel that mark his earlier films (including many of those that he produced rather than directed). With this 1980s nostalgia trip, we can revel in the opportunity to see Spielberg make the kind of movie he hasn’t made in years.

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“Ready Player One” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.

George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.