The Reel Review
Director Steven Spielberg pays homage to video games and 80s pop culture in this adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 fantasy novel, where people escape their bleak, dystopian future via a virtual reality game called the Oasis. When the creator of the game (Mark Rylance) dies, he leaves behind clues to give control of the game to the winner. There are some truly impressive visual effects, but their frenetic, non-stop assault on the senses are apparently meant to distract us from a laughably lame, way too long, ironically one-dimensional story not even worth trying to describe. Young adults and gamers may gobble up the pop cultural references like Pac-Man power pellets, but everyone else will feel like they’ve just watched someone else play a really tedious video game for nearly two and half hours.
Video & Photo
I for one, enjoyed this movie immensely. To the extent that I saw it twice. Take note: Like sporting movies resonating more with viewers of that particular sport, so too Ready Player One speaks to an audience familiar with the world of gaming and pop culture . The many many references to games and pop-culture will be lost to a viewer that didn't grow up with it. Ill be seeing it again, and again.... B+