Will Spielberg bring back that lost art of making a good Matinee movie?

Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2018)

It's easy to dismiss RPO the movie, it's a lighthearted and predictable adventure aimed for families with a sprinkle of oddities and hard sci fi concepts here and there but never going very deep. But that's ok because the movie does not aim for high art but for pure entertainment, and it delivers.
It's funny all those book fans giving crap to the movie but forgetting completely that was Ernest Cline himself that adapted his story to the screen! And I'm glad they changed it because as a movie a faithful translation of the book would be terrible, there is still a lot of telling and explaining to the audience, which is often a bit annoying but thankfully not very long, the many pop culture references are still here but organically used both as a world building tool or as plot devices that blend with the narrative and not become more important than the movie itself and only for that alone I must say this is a sucessful adaptation even if not a perfect package. And If you are invested in the universe you can still read the book and fill the gaps the movie left, they compliment each other.
The characters are very much archetypes, but still charming enough to invest in their journey, there's a certain naiveness that makes Ready Player One feel like an 80's movie made with today's technologies and sensibilities, i was surprised that Spielberg, at the age of 71, could still speak to a modern audience like this although the good old men still comes out with a slightly patronizing but valid message "kids, don't waste too much time in the virtual world" because as older people (I'm 45) we know that this is some time we'll never get back.