A pop culture reference heaven.

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2018)

Ready Player One is one of my most anticipated movie of 2018. I mean, King-Kong, T-rex from Jurassic Park, The DeLorean, and many more all in one movie? Sold. I was born in 2001. I'm 17 years old now. I wasn't supposed to know all these old references considering my age, so why I'm excited for a movie filled with mostly 80'-90's pop culture? It's because I grew up with them. I grew up with Mega Man, Street Fighter, and many more. I don't even watched The Iron Giant yet! (I'll watch it, I promise). But nevertheless, the hype is unbearable to me. The hype just get even better when I found out that the movie is directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg. This movie can't go wrong, right?
At last, the wait is finally over. Totally worth it.
For starters, the cast are great! Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke and Bel Mendelsohn really did a great job as Parzival/Wade, Art3mis/Samantha, and Nolan Sorrento respectively. The supporting cast did a great job as well. Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, and T.J. Miller stood out for me. They really did a good job as Ogden, James Halliday, and i-R0k (though I don't really buy the latter as a bad guy).
The visual effects are stunning! Everything looks stunning and mesmerizing. The action scenes were frantic and fast, yet we still be able to tag along. The music really stood out for me. Alan Silvestri's score is both loud and exciting, and makes all the action more intense and more impactful.
The pop-culture references... There's sooo many of them, so multiple screenings required for you easter-egg hunters. And these references, they all felt necessary to be there, and some of it actually took a big part of the story. I lost count of how many times I genuinely ecstatic to see some of the pop culture reference that I recognize appears on the screen. Chun-Li, and the Hadouken from Street Fighter, the Akira bike, Tracer from Overwatch, the Spartans from Halo, Chucky the Killer, etc. You name it, you got it. The best part? A player summoned a Gundam in Japanese during the big battle against Mechagodzilla (reminds me of Mako from Pacific Rim).
However, this movie isn't perfect. There are some issues I had with the movie. There's really a lot of exposition; people telling us the story, rather than moving along with the story. This happens a lot of times, and It bogged down the movie a bit. Some of the references were shoehorned in some scenes that I thought was unnecessary. And finally, the ending isn't satisfying in my opinion, needs something more than that.
Overall, I really enjoyed Ready Player One. It was worth the wait, and is currently one of my favorite movies this year. I do hope they make a sequel, but considering that the author of the book is currently writing the sequel, I don't think that we're gonna have one soon. Go watch this movie at a theater near you as soon as possible. 3D viewing is recommended for even more appreciation to all the work that's been made.