Keeping the spirit of the nostalgia porn novel it’s based on, if not the specific plot, Ready Player One simplifies and adjusts a lot of the source material. In doing so, it’s alleviated some issues (the deus ex Morrow of the book was the weakest aspect that is thankfully excised here, also WAY less Rush), but it’s created a slew more. While it’s s visual feast, the entire film is a series of easter eggs whose major theme is the celebration of easter eggs, it excises too much of what made the book great (an almost singular focus on 80s nostalgia) and replaced it with dumber methods of getting the plot from point A to point B.
Romantic teen comedies deal with similar tropes – the awkward crush, the grand declarations of love, the out-of-place dance sequence. Love, Simon hits all those notes, with the only difference being that the central character is gay. While there are ways that the film pushes the confines of the adolescent angst usually found in these films, it still bears the same mediocrities that limits its heterosexual counterparts as well.
excellent awkward 