A bit better than I thought it was going to be, but feels even more cynical than I imagined. A story that exists to remind you how good pop culture used to be. It recycles things and makes them worse. Some fun moments in this but ultimately rings hollow.

Ready Player One suffers from poor scriptwriting and a generic, predictable plot. Although I haven't read the novel on which the movie is based, I heard it completely destroyed the story presented in the book, and after watching the movie, I can certainly believe that claim.

Truly cringey cinema which brought the original book back into public consciousness just long enough to confirm it has aged like milk. Like being trapped inside Elon Musk's daydream.

I think this book and movie were meant to be a celebration of media from the 80s, that many nerds grew up with. Instead, it's become a dark specter of where our entertainment industry is heading: resurrecting IP without understanding what made it good, and regurgitating old facts like they stand in for having a personality. I could forgive the cold capitalism, but turning the Iron Giant into a big weapon when the whole point was that he was not a gun? 10,000 years dungeon.