Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg is back in form after a very long time and he made a very nice Nerdgasm, which will take you back not only to the 80s and 90s, but also to your childhood, when you played the first game on Nintendo or Playstation. The movie already has potential cult status and we may be in for a new video game movie heyday. Tye Sheridan, the main character, and Olivia Cooke are very likable in both the real world and in Oasis, and the villain bearing the name Nolan is solid as well, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. Graphically it's very good, the action is varied and entertaining (though there could have been a lot more of it). The best of it comes right at the beginning in the form of a race where we're treated to King Kong and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, then there’s really just the grand finale, unless you count some minor action digressions. The references and Easter Eggs are very good, there are plenty of them and it's almost impossible to spot them all on first viewing. This is an enjoyable original film that is fun, brisk and nicely colored, but I would have liked more humor and more crazy action to complete satisfaction. Still, I look forward to a second viewing. 80% (03/30/2018)

After a long time, I found myself in the cinema almost not breathing. Spielberg, on the other hand, ventilates like a young man. What could have ended up as a storehouse of nostalgia and a pile of fan references turns, in his hands, into a frenetic, yet completely clear and systematically arranged blockbuster, which does not lack steam, emotion, pop culture, but mainly something through and through the present. The way in which Spielberg is able to naturally wedge digital avatars into the monument to his filmmaking generation (The Shining bike ride) is the best evidence that he has not lost any of his relevance over the decades. He is able to look back whilst standing firmly in the present. RPO is not a whimsical dream about the golden age of Easter eggs - it is a radiant rocket which, through its penetration, leaves behind filmmakers who are a generation younger. Yeah, I'd maybe trim it a little bit, but otherwise it is a clean and crystal-fun ride. Reality may be the best, but I always like to be fed stuff like this. (04/03/2018)

Steven Spielberg took all of this experience from previous movies and put it into this sci-fi novelty Ready Player One. In addition to that, he’s also used all the talent that’s made his career and created a perfect blockbuster movie that anyone must love.Furthermore, he had the audacity to divide the blockbuster into two parts, real-action and an animated one that takes the cake. And then if that wasn’t enough, the animated part turns into reality to prove what kind of genius he is. Hats off! Ready Player One is simply amazing. It beautifully uses 1980s and 1990s themes and Steven’s nailed so many pop-culture references that it’s made me a little melancholic. For example, when he toys around with Kubrick’s The Shining, I was wondering whether he wasn’t overdoing it with his genius. But then again, there isn’t that many genius moments, which made me wonder whether he couldn’t have squeezed a little more out of the 1980s and 1990s. Especially music-wise, this could have been brilliant. Anyways, I get it, he simply filmed it the way he wanted to. For example, the ending had the perfect punch. Mark Rylance might have stolen a good chunk of the movie all for himself, but I didn’t really mind, I’m actually glad that Steven discovered him and even more glad that he cast him. In the Bridge of Spies, he proved to me how great an actor he is. And here he repeated it again without any problems. Splendor. And I hope this is not the last splendor as far as the Spielberg-Rylance collaboration goes. However, it’s not that the other actors don’t deserve any praise – I’ll simply say that they are on the same level as the entire movie. (04/18/2018)

Better than the original that is too broad and targeted both at young people as a genre movie and at nostalgic viewer in their thirties. The film adaptation addresses most of the shortcomings, adjusts the tasks for the screen, understands pop culture and commercial video games, withstands a deliberate and stylized digital mess, does not overuse allusions, but the final footage is to excessive. You never start to care for the characters, and it keeps being silly (especially the solutions of the first and third task, there is no need to dedicate your whole life to that, the racing "glitch" would discover even a troll during the first race and the solution of the last task would be obvious to most players 30+ at first glance). In any case, after a long time, Spielberg is back as an “adult with a soul of a child", so he plays with the format, pace of narration (OASIS versus the real world) and often even in a surprisingly imaginative way work with pop culture (especially setting of the second task, it will make you smile. Generally speaking, these horror allusion are one of the most successful ones ever). The resulting megamix of pop-cultural easter eggs, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matrix, traditionally filmed Amblin movies, Sucker Punch and The Last Action Hero is significantly better than what the trailers made us expect. It's even so good that these few annoying weak moments will be even more disappointing. (03/28/2018)

The necessary trimming of a million specific '80s references in film language (even under the guidance of the original author, Ernest Cline) transforms into a million fleeting enchantments, for which everyone must reach out and inevitably contemplate how many of them they couldn't even catch. And it's good, because blindly following a cult template would be a path to hell. Therefore, the challenges are more action-packed, straightforward, inevitably easier, and, first and foremost, easier to find. The entrances to the paths to individual keys are more about luck and intuition than encyclopedic knowledge, but after watching it for a few days, even that doesn't bother me anymore, despite such a change taking away some of Parzival's nerdiness. Similarly, the casting of Olivia Cooke takes away from Art3mis that desirable curviness (the dreamy hottie from the original remains far from the gates of adaptation) and replaces it with a girl named Samantha, but given her talent, which surpasses the rest of the youth by a bit, I almost understand this decision. And the cherry on top? Mark Rylance. Every smile, solemnity, and wink creates an immensely touching combination of life disappointments and boyish efforts. Steven Spielberg becomes the king at least once again. Nobody could have expected the transformation of a cult geekgasm into a loving celebration of human relationships. (04/04/2018)