Ready Player One
Warner Bros. | Release Date: March 29, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 56 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
22
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 2, 2018
I saw the film in IMAX, and a week later I’m still waiting for the safe return of my optic nerves, but it was the meagre emotional charge that shocked me most. Toward the end, as in many Spielberg movies, there are tears, but, for once, they feel unearned. Read full review
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMar 29, 2018
Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future. But it seems to have no idea how dystopian it really is. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 29, 2018
It misses the point to ask, as some have recently, whether he’s still able to have fun at the age and status he has attained. Sure he is. He must have had great fun making this immense Tinker Toy of a movie, but there’s a fundamental mismatch between artist and material. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 28, 2018
It’s a film in which Spielberg’s traditional reverence for the wonder and idealism of youth has had to compromise with wised-up survivalist toughness of the new YA mode. But what extraordinary visuals this films conjures up, with images that appear and disappear like quicksilver memes. Read full review
60
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMar 28, 2018
Ready Player One is entertaining enough, and it’s certainly well-made, but what truly stands out is the filmmaker’s prevailing-present sense of bemused disgust at the way his offspring are spending their time. He can’t go home again, and he knows it. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 28, 2018
Mr. Spielberg, a digital enthusiast and an old-school cineaste, goes further than most filmmakers in exploring the aesthetic possibilities of a form that is frequently dismissed and misunderstood. Read full review
60
CineVueJoe WalshMar 26, 2018
Spielberg asks audiences to fondly remember their childhood, and to fall back in love with characters, songs and stories long forgotten. At the same time, there is a didactic notion that reality is always better than a synthetic replication. You can’t comfortably have both. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 23, 2018
It’s a CGI-heavy fantasia that will pop your eyeballs, but giddy as it is, it never quite sells its characters or gets much purchase on your emotions. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 20, 2018
Once the initial thrill wears off, it’s a hollow kind of fun, which is almost certainly the point. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMar 14, 2018
Ready Player One isn’t slick enough a commentary worth getting riled up about or distracting enough to hide glaring structural issues underneath a barrage of “HEY I KNOW THEM!” cameos like dangling keys in front of a dog. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 28, 2018
It’s a theme park ride but not the rollercoaster Spielberg hopes. More like It’s a Small Virtual World, careening through gamer nirvana, jerking viewers to and fro among everything Gen X retro. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniMar 28, 2018
In spite of how visually dazzling and legitimately entertaining it is, Ready Player One is at its heart, a celebration of the gormless rube. It is a paean to the schmuck. To celebrate it uncritically is to become one. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJun 4, 2020
An even more callow cousin to Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, Ready Player One combines motion-capture performance with state-of-the-art animation to free the filmmaker from the constraints of the traditional, live-action format. Yet form seems to be about all the movie is really interested in. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 29, 2018
So much of Ready Player One is assembled from the detritus of our past that it is less a film and more an overstuffed cultural recycling bin. A shiny, expensive, well-cast and professionally assembled recycling bin, sure, but a trash heap all the same. Read full review
50
The Film StageDaniel SchindelMar 29, 2018
The scenes of millions of things happening at once are skillfully made, to be sure, but they’re still visually busy to the point of numbness instead of energization. The action has verve but no soul. Read full review
50
SlateInkoo KangMar 28, 2018
Ready Player One has no obligation to be a rigorous intellectual exercise, even if it amounts to a wasted opportunity to explore who else might steer tech, and society, toward greater equity. But it doesn’t have to be so facile, either. Maybe next time the screenwriters shouldn’t set the difficulty mode to “easy.” Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 27, 2018
The emphasis here is on the splashy spectacle with those insider-knowledge elements jammed together in a frenetic hodgepodge. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMar 26, 2018
This film, mostly shot in the UK, is technically suberb. But splitting the pleasures of virtual and reality, Ready Player One never fully satisfies on either front. Read full review
50
Vanity FairJoanna RobinsonMar 12, 2018
Because Spielberg seems as eager as Wade to get back to the digital fantasy world he’s created, a lot of the human element is elided or glossed over. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMar 27, 2018
Overall, the movie left me feeling bombarded with images, bored by the lack of an interesting story, and irritated with my own cultural past. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDan CaffreyMar 12, 2018
The joy of Ready Player One does indeed come from its world-building and kaleidoscopic mashup of pop culture—what Spielberg would likely dub its “movie” elements.... At a certain point, though, Ready Player One wants to be appreciated as a film as well as a movie, no matter what Spielberg says. And that’s where it begins to falter. Read full review
40
The GuardianMonica CastilloMar 12, 2018
Those who come away cheering for Ready Player One will likely have enjoyed the film’s many references, the story’s breakneck speed and playful visual design. Others may want to unplug from the paint-by-number characters and shallow plot. Read full review
More From This Movie

64 Critic Reviews

7.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL