RPO is a love letter to pop culture

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2018)

Having grown up in the 80's/90's my brother and I really enjoyed the pop culture references in this film. They were funny, cool and well used. They made the film fun.
The thing that didn't quite work for me is that you had all these young kids referencing 80's stuff. The film is set in the 2040's and it seems weird that the young people would know about The Breakfast Club or Back to the Future. It suggests they've had no pop culture of their own to look back on which is unbelievable.
If the film had centred around older characters, the 80's references would have made more sense. I know Halliday was old enough to have lived and played in the 80's and it's not out the question that kids in 2044 would want to enjoy the same things he did to a point. It's just hard to accept that so many young people would be living in a past that didn't belong to them.
With that being said, RPO is still an enjoyable movie with interesting, if not fully developed characters with a great sense of adventure. It's no Tron by any means and does not have the same magic of that world. The special effects are good and the soundtrack is ok but not memorable.
RPO does not feel like a Spielberg film. He's done a good job with adapting the story for the big screen. I can't help but feel another director such as Joseph Kosinski would have done a lot more with the material.
I watched the film in IMAX 3D and compared to Tron Legacy, the 3D conversion was a great disappointment and a missed opportunity. The Oasis would have looked great in stunning 3D.
Overall RPO is a good film with great nostalgia but it won't be regarded as classic Spielberg in the future.