This movie speaks to the nerd in me despite the flaws that it has.

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2018)

Ready Player One is Spielberg's latest movie and (technically) his second movie of the year with his first being The Post. I've already reviewed the former, so let's tackle it.
This movie takes place in a dystopian future where humanity has lost all hope in restoring the world. Most of the world's population has escaped to the OASIS, a virtual world where literally anything is possible. The creator of the virtual game had died years prior and has sent out a challenge to obtain three keys in order to be crowned the successor of him.
As soon as the movie began to show off the OASIS, I immediately became invested. The visuals presented in the virtual world are simply stunning to look at. They play around with them quite often here, whether be with the integration of The Shining hotel or the race in the beginning. The movie delivers some very engaging action sequences. These include the racing sequence in the beginning and the large battle. As I've said, the visuals in the OASIS look very convincing and look like they actually belong in their own world. On the other hand, the dystopian future looks dystopian at first with Wade's hometown, but I feel like the movie lets go of that viewpoint once he leaves the city. Admittedly, the visuals in the real world feel bland, generally speaking. Wade's hometown looks nice, but everything outside it looks entirely generic.
So Parzival, Wade's username, and his best friend Aech team up with some fellow gamers such as a Twitch streamer named Art3mis and two Japanese gunters who are willing to find the three keys on their own. Along the way, they find out about an organization known as IOI. One aspect of the movie I find intriguing and substantial is the commentary of online relationships. The five of them may establish a nice connection, but they haven't seen each other in the real world. They wouldn't know if they were really predators or just innocent people. The organization IOI is, I think, supposed to symbolize strangers on the internet who act as predators, and I find this both clever and relevant in this day and age.
A problem that many people have with the movie is the pop culture references. The movie opens with Minecraft, there are several references to The Shining, there are classic song references and one of the characters works on an Iron Giant, and that's not scratching the surface for how many references there are. Some may see this as a bad thing because it may end up dating the movie. While this is most likely true, it really didn't bother me, since I am a bit of a movie nerd myself.
My biggest problem with the movie happens to be the characters. While I find Wade/Parzival and Samantha/Art3mis to be the most developed characters, with their relationship growing overtime, all of the other characters are undeveloped, bland and plain forgettable. Even the villain feels forgettable with his reasoning for wanting the keys being generic.
Ready Player One may have its flaws, but it's also a movie that really speaks to the nerd in me. If you're a video game or an 80s and 90s movie nerd, you'll most likely have a fun time watching it.
8/10