Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Announces A July 24 Home Entertainment Launch Date For Director Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has tabbed July 24 as the home entertainment street date for director Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the Ernest Cline 2011 sci-fi novel, Ready Player One.

The ARR is 116 days and box office receipts are solid at $135.2 million … whether Ready Player One becomes Warner Bros. counterpoint to Fox’s successful Maze Runner film franchise remains to be seen (Spielberg may have to hand sequels, if any, off to other filmmakers).

Planned for release are a stand-alone DVD edition, two Blu-ray Combo Pack presentations — one a Blu-ray/DVD configuration and the other is a double disc Blu-ray set with 2D and 3D viewing options — and, lastly, there is a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack.

Ready Player One is a beautiful, even spectacular film — you’d expect nothing less from Spielberg — but it is relentlessly depressing.   In the near future (circa 2045) the United States — specifically, Columbus, Ohio (go Bucks!) — has been reduced to an over-crowded third world slum (it numbs the mind to even imagine what the rest of the world must be like).   

To avoid the reality of a country, much less a planet, with no future, the younger generation (who might be better served in seeking solutions, but that would be a different movie) retreat into a world of virtual reality known as the OASIS.  It is an imaginary world where, if you were actually super rich, instead of just surviving from one day to the next, you could do pretty much anything that you might imagine just to entertain yourself.   

OASIS is basically a drug … it’s the current generation’s fascination with digital devices (texting, etc.) taken to the next level, or even beyond the next level.  If the poor kids, living in hastily fashioned tenements, have access to the high-tech world of OASIS, we can only imagine what the rest of the world must be like … perhaps living in the hell envisioned by Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium.

Basically, Ready Player One is a “Wizard of Oz … don’t look behind the curtain” kind of movie.   Enjoy the ride; the thrill of it, the visuals … enjoy the adventures of the avatar Parzival (Tye Sheridan — Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, X-Men: Apocalypse, etc.) and the life and death game being played for the control of OASIS.   Just don’t ask too many questions of how OASIS continues to function … real-world issues like electricity, food supplies, clean drinking water, trash pick-up, etc. are best left ignored.   Who is doing the heavy lifting in 2045 if the Neo-Millennials are busy with OASIS?   

All SKU configurations include the featurette titled “The '80’s: You’re the Inspiration.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions are five additional production featurettes — “Game Changer: Cracking the Code,” “Effects for a Brave New World,” “Level Up: Sound for the Future,” “High Score: Endgame” and “Ernie & Tye's Excellent Adventure.”