In Ready Player One, though having lots of exposition, Steven Spielberg delivers a wonderfully thrilling first third, but soon afterwards fails to keep the pace and lets the story to gradually succumb to over-reliance on characters and plot twists that were common in 1980s but look sorely outdated and tedious in 2018. This as such is largely in purpose as the story wants to be seen as a tribute to pop-culture - for some reason meaning the 1980s' culture only - but it doesn't make boring the audience any less acceptable. The last real highlight is a magnificent scene in the Shining's hotel.

The plot follows characters in the virtual reality and in the real world, jumping back and forth. Action involving the actual people is often poorly staged. Plot rushes from one place to another without much logic. Characters come and go as they please, and it is later difficult to remember what actually happened. The big end fight in the virtual world appears to be staged only because a big end fight needed to be at the end, having no logic, reason or real feeling and bringing nothing new to the long series of purposeless end fights in expensive blockbusters.

Hit and miss, and increasingly a miss towards the end, Ready Player One is still a reliable Spielberg that probably will entertain younger audiences more than those who actually remember the 1980s.