Ready Player One (2018)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn
Runtime: 140 minutes

Performances: 5/10
Screenplay: 5/10
Special Effects: 8/10
Costumes/Makeup: 7/10
Editing: 6/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Score/Soundtrack: 7/10

Verdict: When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, it's revealed that he had hidden one easter egg somewhere in the game which will gift its finder the fortune he has left behind, as well as total control of the game. This obviously led to a race between Parzival (Tye Sheridan), helped by his friends, and the evil corporation IOI, presided by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) to find it.

I honestly wasn't expecting much from the film. The idea behind it seemed like a lot of fun, and that's all I wanted to experience. Having watched it now, I'd say that fun is the perfect word to describe the movie. It is filled with pop culture references that I had a blast looking for, and I found the journey to find the egg also entertaining. The special effects were pretty great as well, truly making the parts happening in the virtual world look like a video game.

However, I do wish the writers took a little more time thinking about how the game works. The rules and physics of it really were inconsistent and make no sense the second you start thinking about them, which took me out of the movie a bunch of times. It is also filled with cheese, exposition, and conveniences that bothered me quite a bit. Finally, the villain played by Ben Mendelsohn, as well as the corporation he's part of, held the movie back in my opinion. They checked all the boxes of a generic evil corporation whose only aim is to make a lot of money and weighted negatively on the fun adventure the main characters were having.

"Ready Player One" honestly should've been better, and will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I do think that it will satisfy movie nerds like me who enjoy looking for pop culture references. 

Final Grade: 6/10