Ready Player One - Review Thread

Really, just did this for one reason ;-)

Congratulations, Doomsday

Ready Player One is one of only three movies that Warner Bros is campaigning for the Oscars

www.warnerbros2018.com/screenings/

We all know if Doomsday's going to win an Oscar for a movie this year it's going to be Overlord.

You joke but it’s possible.

I've been a major advocate for this late period of Spielberg's career. Not everything the legendary director has made this decade has been a hit (War Horse immediately comes to mind), but movies like The Post and Bridge of Spies are rock solid, while a film like Lincoln is flat-out excellent. Despite this support, I had a hard time drumming up much enthusiasm for Ready Player One, which seemed from the outset to be the culmination of the fan-service, 80s pandering, reference dependent blockbusters we've been getting across the last several years. Something like this just seemed so beneath Spielberg, and even if it didn't, it just didn't seem like a project I had much interest in. Still, eventually my curiosity won out and ultimately I'm glad it did.

Ready Player One is a pretty fun movie. Spielberg seems to have taken the source material and emphasized the escapist fun elements while downplaying some of the book's more toxic elements. The video game virtual reality created here is actually pretty neat and while the special effects wouldn't work in every movie, here they make sense given the film is meant to be set in a game. Similarly. the ridiculous action scenes feel a lot more at home in the realms of the a videogame as over the top is this, and Spielberg also makes these scenes way more coherent than the trailers lead you to believe.

As a narrative, the film is merely serviceable, with a basic coming of age hero story and a pretty limited romance subplot. It works, but it's nothing special. The film also ignores a lot of the more interesting questions it could have explored and the ultimate conclusion it comes to is not one the film totally backs up. Ready Player One is also not above some cringier elements. Still, the film is more fun than I really thought it would be and that Shining set-piece in particular is something special. Overall, I still think at this point, Spielberg is a lot better working on adult dramas like the largely underappreciated Bridge of Spies and The Post, but this is an enjoyable romp that is probably worth a viewing.

B-

Not even Mechagodzilla? 

Doomsday, some asshole called you out on the internet

Dont mind me, removing accidental thread bookmark

Your directorial debut

George Lucas will direct

Only if those hand me downs are younger than 80 years old.