A fun time with very little under the surface.

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2018)

Very minor spoilers.
I saw the pop-culture riddled nostalgic pornographic commercial film, Ready Player One and... it was fine. Had this not been directed by Steven Speilberg I think a lot of the magic that makes it enjoyable wouldn't be there.
Yes, there are many times where I sighed at a poorly placed reference, some were even cringy. However, it's the more subtle references to style and nostalgic methods of storytelling that make Ready Player One decent. The only problem is that the story itself feels a bit undercooked. There is a vast world to be explored in the Oasis and the poverty-stricken, corporate-run real world. Unfortunately, we mostly get the Oasis. This subtracts from the story's heart and human connection making a few emotional moments near the end miss the mark. The world building is mediocre at best and we never get a sense of how things truly work, what we do get does suffice but it's surface level stuff.
The final shot of this film is also a huge middle finger to the audience as it goes for the more typical boy "gets the girl" douche bag routine rather than focusing on their love. A scene of them dancing together in the real world for the first time (because they danced together in the game) would have been far better and it's a shame it wasn't the final shot.
Despite the last minute and world building problems, Ready Player One is a blast and managed to make me laugh more than a few times, not at references, but at good lines the best of which are from Ben Mendelsohn as the villain. The chase scenes are also fun and the score is actually charming. It's not amazing but it's a 7/10 at best, I wouldn't watch it again all the way through because it's also a predictable movie but I'm glad I saw it.