Earlier this weekend, a special announcement was made down in Austin, Texas, with Warner Bros. revealing that the SXSW Film Festival would see the world premiere of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. Now that screening has gone down, with a few film professionals in the audience, and their first reactions to the feature are online.
The screening apparently had some technical issues, dealing with sound problems and screen freezes in the third act, but it eventually finished, letting the folks there publically express their thoughts. We'll start with TCM and FilmStruck host Alicia Malone - who offered a bit of criticism while offering that the audience in Austin went absolutely nuts for the film. She emphatically recommends reading Ernest Cline's novel first, but overall has positive things to say about Ready Player One:
Erik Davis from Fandango was a bit more enthusiastic in his response. After also noting the impressive noise made by the crowd at SXSW, he expressed that this is a special kind of Steven Spielberg movie that we have not seen in a long time, and that he was entertained the whole way through:
One person who definitely isn't in the Ready Player One camp is Pajiba's Kristy Puchko, who doesn't think the film is so much built on fun references as much as it is an exploitation of nostalgia. First referring to it as a "cacophonous eye-sore," she pointed out this irony about the narrative's villain, played by Ben Mendelsohn:
Lastly we have Grae Drake from Rotten Tomatoes, who was apparently swept away by her Ready Player One experience. Her positivity is primarily targeted at the film's visuals and effects, suggesting that it's a unique experience.
Ready Player One, which stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance, arrives in theater at the end of this month, heading the cinemas on March 29th. Stay tuned for more of our coverage here on CinemaBlend, including our own review!
