The best half-movie of the year

Rating: 5/10 (4 November 2018)

I knew this movie has potential to be my favorite from the very first moments. The score is excellent and matches the scenes and characters perfectly. The setup and initial character development are all but flawless. Granted, it's easy if the main character simply narrates the basic premise, but it feels natural and there is still plenty of details left for us to discover as the action unfolds. The visual effects are perfect too. I-R0k is one of the best villains I've ever seen - brilliant, stupid, scary, and comical at the same time in perfect harmony. It all seemed too good to be true, and so it was.
After the first hour of the movie, right after IOI blew up Wade's home, things suddenly fell apart so clearly as if a script writer suddenly ran away and was replaced by a teenage underachiever. And it couldn't come at a worst time. I mean this was supposed to be a pivotal moment in the movie, when Wade is at his lowest, his home and family are gone, he's completely alone, helpless and running for his life. This is when he must realize that he needs friends to survive, both in Oasis and the real world. This is when he can discover his true strength, stop being a slacker who just wants to hide from his crappy life in a fantasy world. Instead, he just goes with the flow from that point, losing any shreds of initiative he had before. First, he's kidnapped by some moronic "rebellion" (which plays no further role in the movie) and unwillingly meets all his "friends" in the real world, and so on. The following scenes and dialogs feel primitive and juvenile, character development stops completely, leaving Daito and Sho in particular horribly underdeveloped, plot lines get lost, and so on. Wade goes from "I don't clan" to "In the name of the High Five" with no preparation or justification. One of the most anticipated moments - him meeting Art3mis in the real world - goes without a hitch, because her avatar is pretty much her real self (including identical voice and personality) and Wade simply brushes off any slight differences in appearance. Same is true with Helen - she suddenly jumps in and within a few seconds it's like nothing happened and they always knew each other in the real world. Her being a woman was obvious from the start, by the way, if only because Aech's voice is clearly a digitally lowered female voice. Sorrento's arc is also a total loss - he suddenly goes from being afraid of real action to grabbing a gun and going after Wade, but when he gets there he does nothing. Oh, and he gets punched in the balls and in the face. Hilarious... if you're twelve. Okay, the moment where Wade realizes that Anorak is not an avatar, but something mysterious has some great potential, but even that is left hanging.
I'm not saying the second half of the movie is completely unwatchable - there's plenty of fun action, especially during the final battle, but that's all just mindless action, nothing left of the movie's true potential. To paraphrase I-R0k: "Well, Spielberg blows it. Shocking."