Hey guys!! D'you remember that one classic Simpsons episode where the school has a diorama contest, and Ralph Wiggum just lazily brings in a box of unopened Star Wars figure? And Principal Skinner thinks it's a FANTASTIC diorama, because he LOVES Star Wars, and Ralph included Chewy, and Han Solo, and those are Skinner's favourite characters?!?

Well, Steven Spielberg is Ralph Wiggum, and everyone who gave this movie an 8 or 9 or 10/10, are Seymor Skinner, thinking that lazy references to pre-existing pop culture (even references to pre-existing, GENUINELY GOOD pop culture), are somehow skillfull, or artistic...

Spielberg is no doubt a skilled film-maker, and in his prime, from the 70s to early 90s, he honestly tops my 'Best Directors' list- Jaws, Raiders, Empire of the Sun, Duel, Jurassic Park, and CE3 are all goddam incredible... But seriously, how hard is it to list off a bunch of movies and games that are near-universally loved, and use that to fill out your movie's run-time, in order to try to farm all that goodwill-by-proxy?

(And ESPECIALLY when you're super-rich, and can afford to license the use of all these properties, that are off-limits for most, non-squilllionaire film-makers...)

It's the movie version of the kid who thinks that having all the toys and merch from the movies that everyone loves, is a valid substitute for actual personality traits, and being a decent human being.

To give RP1 a fair assessment, you need to look at EVERYTHING BUT the endless barrage of rented nostalgia for pre-existing pop culture; You need to strip away all the references, and look at the ACTUAL STORY, that's (supposedly) unique to THIS movie... and what you're left with, is a pretty unremarkable 2018 movie- Not terrible, but certainly not great, either; Another "epic adventure" that relies way too much on slick, latest-greatest digital FX that will age like milk, a plucky, #relatable hero who make snappy quips while facing insurmountable odds (which we all know, even before pressing 'play', that he WILL surmount, in the nick of time...), and a one-dimensional, evil, corporate villain.

But ironically, while the wall-to-wall pop culture references are certainly the most memorable aspect of the movie, I honestly think it would be better as a movie (but still pretty middling) without all that...

...but it would also be faaaaaaaaar less financially successful, because most people are goddam morons, and have this braindead, reflexive, pavlovian response, where they genuinely can't tell the difference between "seeing a reference to something I like", vs "actually liking the media, that the reference was made in..."

Someone who genuinely respected all the movies and games, referenced in this film, wouldn't just try to milk them all dry, and exploit them for cheap, lazy nostalgia, the way this movie does; A sly, well-placed reference here and there, often CAN add to a movie... but 37,825 sledgehammer-subtle references, once every 17 seconds, 99% of which are just copy-pasting the most widely-known,obvious images from the property, is NOT the same thing, and almost always adds no real substance, whatsoever.