Watched 'Ready Player One' as someone who got a lot of pleasure out of the book and who loves a lot of Steven Spielberg's previous work. Despite it getting a fair share of criticism from fans of the book, that there were also enough good things said about it from critics and that many of my friends said it was worthwhile persuaded me enough to see it.

'Ready Player One' left me with a mixed view (or just slightly above). As a book adaptation 'Ready Player One' is severely wanting, having lost what made the book so special. As a film on its own, which is how it will be judged by me being a much fairer way to judge, 'Ready Player One' is quite decent though with faults. It is nowhere near being one of Spielberg's best, a distinction he has not hit for a while (though for me he has not sold out),at the same time it is not one of his misfires either. To me 'Ready Player One' is a middling effort.

Starting with its good merits, 'Ready Player One' looks incredible. One of those films where one is truly immersed in a world filled with a non-stop sense of wonder. The Oasis depiction is rich in wonder, adventure, vibrancy and imagination, the cool factor is also high. The special effects are pretty spectacular. Alan Silvestri provides the best score in a Spielberg film since 'War Horse' (and one of the best in the past fifteen years or so),providing a lot of energy and thrills.

Nostalgia is rife with inspired cameos of numerous significant cultural characters, like the 'Jurassic Park' dinosaur and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and even more numerous cultural references, highlights being the 'Back to the Future' Delorean and the Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining'. There is enough wit and intrigue in the writing and the story has many instances where it is fun and laden in thrills, the chase scenes especially. Particularly standing out is the one switching between real world and the Oasis. Spielberg delivers on the spectacle, the world building and the visual style.

Although not complex or subtle, the characters are engaging enough. Olivia Cooke is very appealing and shares charming chemistry with Tye Sheridan. Simon Pegg is great fun, while Ben Mendelssohn has a whale of a time as the villain and Mark Rylance beautifully and terrifically provides the emotion and soul that is not quite there elsewhere.

However, the story does tend to be lacking. There is just too little structurally in a very long, too long even, running time, no matter how many cultural references there are. With trying to take on a lot, character depth and development are sacrificed in favour of spectacle and nostalgia. Luckily those are done well, but one does wish that the characters were more interesting with the lead character in particular not having much growth.

This does affect somewhat Tye Sheridan's performance, shining in the chemistry with Cooke but elsewhere it's somewhat bland and cold. The script does have wit and intrigue but it can also be exposition heavy, and it is here where the writing feels rambling, unnatural and clumsy. There are aspects of Spielberg's directing that comes over well.

Unfortunately, what doesn't is the complete command of the material and giving the film enough soul and emotion (Rylance cannot bring those qualities out all on his own, no matter how well he did them). Some of the messaging is heavy-handed and the finale is far too overly-sentimental and where the sketchiness of the character development and overall depth is most betrayed.

Overall, diverting and entertaining enough but was expecting more. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Steven Spielberg's latest cinematic exercise is the equivalent of watching somebody else playing a computer game: in other words, not very interesting at all. I thought he would've learnt a few lessons with his bland Tintin adaptation, but it seems not because READY PLAYER ONE feels like one of his worst-ever movies. It's a bland and soulless virtual reality adventure in which a mundane hero plays game to defeat the usual cliched big business corporate interest bad guys. Not at all predictable, then.

Spielberg fills his movie with pop culture references, which is mildly interesting I guess, but fails to make any of it entertaining for a second. The CGI animation I found to be quite shallow and insubstantial, with the same big-span battle sequences playing out over and over again that we've seen countless times in other Hollywood movies. I was longing for something more real-world and realistic and I look forward to the day that Hollywood gives up on this kind of mindless hokum. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in JURASSIC PARK: just because they can do these FX movies, doesn't mean they should.

I have to marvel at the computer graphics that Steven Spielberg used in creating Ready Player One. Sad to say I am not of the gaming generation, the fascination of playing these games hours on end is totally lost to me. My ignorance of these matters makes it hard to follow the plot in something like this. For instance the Matrix series. I've watched those films and I haven't reviewed them because I'm not sure of what I watched. This was a bit better.

In 2045 the world is really a rotten place and folks like young Tye Sheridan have retreated into their own cyber world called The Oasis. It's where with avatars they can play their own games and win and lose in a much more interesting place than the Columbus, Ohio of the near future.

Sheridan is now playing in the most important game of his life. At stake is the ownership/patent of the Oasis created by eccentric Bill Gates type billionaire Mark Rylance. It's like Willy Wonka willing his Chocolate Factory to a lucky kid. But this is much bigger stakes.

This film is more than half in animation when Sheridan meets some of his cyber friends once again as they all compete looking for prizes in the cyber world called Easter Eggs. Get three and he's a winner.

Sheridan does meet his friends again in the cyber world and in the real one. He also has to fight in both.

What the attraction is I don't know. But I'm happy that at the end, the world gets a shot of needed reality.