A fun Video Game movie that's timely and has a social conscious

Rating: 6/10 (14 April 2018)

Ready Player One is a far better video game movie, movie about gamers than either a love letter to the 80s or movie about its lead character Wade. So if your enjoyment of RP1 needs to lean on identifying with Wades life or being treated to a never ending stream of 80s references, and only 80s references, you may be disappointed.
But the movie worked as a love letter to gamers, and friendship, and as a cautionary tale warning of the perils of immersive on-line gaming and the toll it could take on humanity and society (why am I so serious? The movie's fun).
First the good: It was visually beautiful, the action sequences inspired. As a child of the 80s I thought all of the decade specific references were well done and enjoyable. I loved the movies sights and sounds, its nostalgia, and its video gamishness (Okay that's not an actual word ;))
The directing was good, especially the action which was never muddled despite being frenetic and cluttered with characters, Easter eggs, and everything else. The script was decent... I mean the material is pretty unwieldy, as anyone who's read the book would know, so I'm not gonna complain too much about it. The plot was comprehensible and pretty satisfying. The main characters were underdeveloped, and the books 80s atmosphere was somewhat compromised, both of which I touch on below:
While the acting was good, Rylance and Mendelsohn were especially inspired, I wasn't able to get emotionally invested in the kids as the world they lived in and their struggle was under explored in order to focus on gamers, friendship, and fan-boy culture (not that this was totally a bad thing given the appeal of the property).
The other area where the movie fell short of greatness for me was the efforts of the studio and filmmakers to broaden the appeal of RP1 beyond the books primary fans: Dudes over the age of 30 who are obsessed with the 80s... And I get that. A movie that's this expensive has to appeal to women and younger people, not just my old behind. But the Iron Giant, as lovely as he was, stuck out like a sore thumb. And don't even get me started on that 'one the nose' 70s dance number... barf!
I'd recommend watching Ready Player One, ideally on the biggest screen possible, Imax even, as it has a few action sequences which really need to be experienced on the biggest screen possible to be fully enjoyed. It was definitely worth the price of admission.