After working on it for three years, director Steven Spielberg finally debuted his film adaptation of Ready Player One at the SXSW Film Festival last week and earned a largely rapturous reception. Now you can add another name to its list of fans: Edgar Wright, the director of films like Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Baby Driver. Wright saw the movie at its London premiere and took to Twitter to praise it, singling out one aspect at which Spielberg is especially adept. Read the Edgar Wright Ready Player One comments below.



Indiewire pointed us to this tweet from Wright from very early this morning:

Still processing the audio visual feast that is Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’. It has several scenes that confirm again him as the master of blocking action set pieces (big and small). And given this must have been a gargantuan VFX challenge it could really be called ‘The Post’. — edgarwright (@edgarwright) March 20, 2018

Spielberg’s mastery of blocking scenes are a huge part of the reason he’s considered one of the best directors to ever step onto a film set. For those who may not know, “blocking” refers to the staging of elements within a scene: it’s the act of planning where the camera is going to be in relation to the camera, and how the action moves within the frame. Steven Spielberg had a better grasp on this before he was 30 years old than most directors ever will. If you’re looking for visual proof, check out these video essays:

Spielberg’s brilliance at blocking often shines through in Ready Player One, even when the movie threatens to get bogged down in its pop culture references. In fact, one of the movie’s most effective action sequences is one I thought I’d hate from seeing it in the trailers: a huge race in which our heroes and a bunch of faceless villains zoom past recognizable larger-than-life movie characters who try to knock them off course. Spielberg always knows exactly where to place the camera to achieve the maximum effect of what he’s going for, and he’s able to create chaotic action that has a sense of control to it – unlike some filmmakers, you never feel like the scene has gotten away from him.

Wright’s tweet is high praise, considering Wright himself is no slouch when it comes to blocking. Baby Driver could have been called Blocking: The Movie because of how perfectly-timed each shot had to be, and Wright’s sense of spatial control seems to have been heavily influenced by Spielberg’s filmography. (Baby Driver is a much catchier name, though, so he probably made the right call with that one.)

Ready Player One hits theaters on March 29, 2018. Be sure to check out our full review, as well as our interviews with Spielberg and the cast and our video of the Ready Player One Challenge in Hollywood.