While the relationship is a nice bit of side story, the nostalgia is probably the second most important aspect in this movie. There so many references that it would take thousands of words to point them all out. I grew up on these movies so I have spotted many of them.
While the nostalgia is strong, the plot leans toward being okay to fair. The video game aspects are the stronger elements. I love that characters explode into coins and you can collect them. The first major stage is a giant street racing event and it is amazing to see on the screen. Honestly, it feels, sounds and looks like a what a street racing game. Think of it as a cross between Ridge Racer and those Nintendo street racing games.
-The Shinning is Back: The second stage is the Shinning level. I dug it and it felt and looked like the movie of the same name. I love that they have to follow all the rules of the worlds the gamers enter into. It as a lean into the movie nerds than VG fans.
-Godzilla Theme: Hidden in the final battle, the composer does slip in some of the old Godzilla themes when Mecha-Godzilla.
-The Chucky cameo was great: I love that Chucky is a special weapon. He is so random and violent you have to let him loose and run.
-Alien and Mortal Kombat: Somehow seeing the Alien and MK franchises mix it up is very strange but funny.
-Debt Prison: Hmm, a bit of foreshadowing for real life? In the movie, the bigger companies can in-prison you to hard labor via the VR world. We could be seeing this soon.
The fantasy and sci-fi elements are far more compelling than the real world aspects. The real story isn't terrible. It just doesn't have the colorful landscape or positive vibes of the OASIS world. It is kind of like real life in which it basically is a bit bland. This is the main problem with RPO and some of its pacing issues in the second act.
The third act does work better thanks to the story focusing in on the fantasy world more than the real world. However, there are some good editing and pacing moments where a car chasing happening when a big event is happening in the OASIS. I think only a seasoned director like Steven Spielberg could make these different/counter scenes work in tandem.
Could they have made this movie ten years ago? Probably not given the amount of CGI and landscaping work. It wouldn't look this good.
With a good balance of storytelling and nostalgia, Ready Player One is a surprisingly fun movie in the same way as Roger Rabbit, Wreck-It-Ralph and Scott Pilgrim. The movie has just enough of a good narrative and the references aren't that intrusive yet work within the context of the story. On the cyber world side, RPO is what we wanted from The Matrix sequels. Ready Player One is not a perfect movie, but far more entertaining than Matrix Revolutions. Some of Spielberg's modern issues do creep into this movie, but it is still a nice callback to the franchises we loved in the 70's-90s.
These are our worlds just as much as the big companies that own them. And, I think that is the larger theme of Ready Player One.
Grade: B-
Great Scott
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