Movie Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One was a pop culture mash-up love letter to video games. Sure, I had a couple of reservations going into the film as I was worried that this would just be a mindless throwaway mess of pop culture and nostalgic references, but it somehow worked remarkably well on its own right.

The performances, for the most part, were excellent, the tonal shift and transitions weren't as jarring as I expected, and just the technical mastery of the entire film from the awe-inspiring visuals to the terrific score and direction was impressive. The pacing was also on point that it somehow felt much shorter than its actual running time despite the bloated third act. The character development was, arguably, weak though and while they looked cool, there was something about them that seemed distant and less relatable.

Still, Ready Player One was a wonderful, refreshing, and unique cinematic experience that it's easy to ignore its flaws.