MOVIE REPORT CARD: READY PLAYER ONE

Date: 3/27/18
Title: Ready Player One
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Ty Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg

GRADES

ACTING: 85
DIRECTING: 90
SCREENPLAY: 80
EDITING: 80
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 90
SOUNDSTRACK: 90

FINAL: 86/B+

COMMENTS

As Ready Player One unfolds, you can literally feel Steven Spielberg, nudging and winking at you. This is where the film succeeds the most. Ready Player One, is Spielberg, just having fun and taking you along with him. I personally have not read the book, so I didn't quite know what to expect with this. I knew it was chock full of references and Easter eggs, but damn. There's so much fun to be had with this film and Spielberg, masterfully weaves so much in, without it being overpowering. Sure, there are the blatant references. However, most of them are crucial or have relevance to the plot, or a scene. The rest is more blink and you miss it. Or is it more like try and pick out EVERY- SINGLE-THING-HAPPENING-IN-THIS-SCENE-RIGHT-NOW-OMG-WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-HAPPENING... The cast is great, with Olivia Cooke being the strongest here. Where the film suffers, is in some of its story. It doesn't always quite work, and the film can get bogged down, which makes the movie feel long. That being said, Spielberg, knows where the money is and he gives it to you. What we are left with, is a fun, classic, Spielbergian, 80's, feeling romp. And it will make you leave with a wide grin on your face. This movie, is helluva lot of fun.