Ready Player One is One of Spielberg's Best Movies of the Century, So Far!

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2018)

Let's face it, Spielberg is never going to be able to top one of his classic movies (like Jaws) with one of his movies from this century (like War Horse). But that doesn't mean that just because none of his new stuff will ever measure up to his more older stuff, it isn't good. Ready Player One is an example of that. After seeing the movie, I created and stand by, my opinion that it is one of his best movies from this century. Ready Player One's story isn't super deep (in fact, quite the opposite). But it is pretty exciting (an emotion that Spielberg is good at creating, action-packed, and has some decent messages about humanity's dependence on technology, reality, and how technology can be both good and evil. The story also has a great, intertwining mystery throughout about where the Keys are hidden that keeps the audience wanting more- I think. Ready Player One also boasts great direction from Spielberg (who seems to be trying to use a new type of more modern directing which can feel a little odd at times but is still good) and some pretty good performances from both Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke (who play the protagonist characters of Wade/Parzival and Samantha/Art3mis) and Ben Mendelsohn and T.J. Miller (who play the antagonist characters of Noah Sorrento and I-R0k). We also get great performances from a very diverse cast of supporting actors and actresses. Such as: Lena Waithe (who plays Aech/Helen), Simon Pegg (who plays Ogden Morrow), Mark Rylance (who plays Anorak/James Halliday), Phillip Zhao (who plays Sho), Win Morisaki (who plays Daito), and Hannah John-Kamen (who plays F'Nale Zandor). The special effects are, obviously, top-notch. The CGI in The Oasis is so good at some times, it is disorienting, but the movie manages to blend the CGI and real world images effortlessly and so the switch isn't at all confusing. Also, Spielberg actually managed to make the CGI not at all cheesy, which is a very amazing achievement. The action sequences are sort of the standard normal action sequences that you would find in a standard Marvel movie, not really anything to be said about the action sequences. Also, the movie has a crazy amount of of pop-culture references. There is like a reference in every frame. Mostly it is pop culture references from the 70s, 80s, and 90s which were the decades that Spielberg was the most popular (although he doesn't reference any of his own films in the movie, which is kind of a bummer because his films defined those decades). But modern pop culture also gets referenced a lot as well (though there are absolutely zero references to Fortnite sadly). So, the references are a nice edition as well. On a closing note, the movie also has a lot of memorable moments that are worth seeing: Like an Iron Giant fighting against Godzilla and the movie quote, "IT'S F***ING CHUCKY!!! And remember this, while Ready Player One is definitely not one of the best movies that Spielberg has ever made, it is one of his best movies from this century so far. Which makes it definitely worth seeing.