Twenty-seven years in the future, people spend much of their time escaping into a virtual world. We spend half of this movie in that same animated experience (with lots of 80s cultural references). Part of the quest is fought by avatars, while the humans create conflict back in reality. The visuals are sometimes dazzling and they move by really fast (lots of opportunities for freeze frames to look for Easter eggs). The story isn’t unique: scrappy regular guys take on the powerful corp that wants to own the technology. The characters aren’t especially original and the performances are nothing special (Mark Rylance is the only standout). There aren’t lots of typical Spielberg touches (strong emotional connections, iconic moments), but he does keep it moving at a lively pace. BTW, this begs to be seen on the big screen because there’s so much to see.
(3.5 / 5)