Relies heavily on empty nostalgia and pop-culture references but lacks engagement and a solid story of its own.

Rating: 4/10 (2 April 2018)

'Ready Player One (2018)' should have been called 'The Pop-Culture Movie', since it is so chock-full of blatant references and call-backs to media, from the eighties and nineties in particular. It seems as though this over-reliance on pre-existing material, along with its recognition and nostalgic value, is the driving force behind most of the narrative, being that the flick itself doesn't capture the spirit of the films it intends to ape, and so often calls out by name to cringe-worthy results, but instead shoves in reference after soulless reference in a vapid attempt to prey on its audience's ability to recognise things they've seen before. This 'nostalgia vampirism' is meant to evoke memories of better films and have those emotions transposed onto this one, though it only succeeds in the former and reminds you how much you'd rather watch any of those than this. It's evocative of the larger issues that plague the flick, those being that it doesn't have any real stakes or ability to engage on its own and also treats its audience as rather dumb and forces expository dialogue down their throats at every opportunity. The on-the-nose exposition was honesty some of the most intense and grating I'd experienced in some time. The feature did have some nice visual effects and I cared about the digital 'avatars' as much as any of their real-world counter-parts, though only to a certain degree, but so much was happening that it was hard to register at times due to the odd colour palette and heavily contrasting character designs. It didn't have a cohesive aesthetic, to say the least. It did have a good score by Alan Silvestri and some of its allegorical undertones certainly ring true. I honestly wasn't entertained, though, despite all the visual splendour and things that should appeal directly to me, and that really tells you all you need to know. For all the throw-away movie references, where was the fun of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)'? Where was the wonder of 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)', the suspense of 'Jaws (1975)' or the excitement of 'Jurassic Park (1993)'? In other words, where was Spielberg? 4/10