"Ready Player One" / "Inheriting Gods" / "All But Gone"

Not being a video-games aficionado I initially had no interest in seeing “Ready Player One”. However, given the good reviews, and the proven story-telling acumen of Steven Spielberg, I figured, correctly as it turned out, that it would at least be a visually stimulating experience. The story involves the inter-connectedness between a hellish real world of high-rise trailer-park slums, and a CGI realm of 3D gaming with real-life consequences. There is a quest, involving a group of “virtual” friends, led by Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke, seeking a set of keys which will allow them to take control of their universe and impeded by the villainous Ben Mendelsohn. It’s all very entertaining, with echoes of “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory”, plentiful positive undertones (inclusivity, little people rising up against The Man, the rise of the geeks), too many clever 1980s movie references to take in, and some good jokes. I suspect it won’t live long in the memory, however.

"Ready Player One" (Warner Bros)

My most recent theatre-reviewing assignments were Carmen Stephens’ likeable “Inheriting Gods” at Chapter, a two-hander about a Welsh girl on holiday in America making friends with a native American youth, and both of them reconnecting with their ancestors’ legacies; and the latest at The Other Room: Matthew Trevannions’s “All But Gone”, all about small-town relationships and life-long regrets – very emotional.

"Inheriting Gods" (photo: Kirsten McTernan)

"All But Gone" (photo: Kieran Cudlip)