Steven Spielberg (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”) has delivered another true classic with “Ready Player One”. This is arguably the ultimate love letter to pop culture with literally hundreds of references to movies, tv shows, videogames, comics and music. However, it also works as a fun adventure flick and a commentary on technology and consumerism.

Set in 2045, “Ready Player One” depicts a world where millions of people across the world escape the grim nature of reality by playing on the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe. When the creator of the OASIS (Mark Rylance “Dunkirk”) died, he revealed that inside the OASIS is an Easter egg and whoever finds it will become the heir to his fortune. Wade Wilson (Tye Sheridan “X-Men: Apocalypse”) plays online as his digital counterpart, Parzival, to find the Easter egg.

The main characters in the movie are actually fairly likeable and while I did not necessarily like the look of the effects for their online avatars, it works fine considering that it is meant to be a computer game character. I really like the villainous Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”). There are countless cameo appearances so keep an eye out for King Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog, Duke Nukem, He-Man, Freddy Krueger, Batman, the Iron Giant, Boba Fett and many, many more.

The film includes so many references, it is unbelievable. This is a movie that throws in conversations about “Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension”, has a fight scene between one of the robots from “Mobile Suit Gundam” and Mechagodzilla and features a race scene involving the Batmobile and the DeLorean from “Back To The Future”. This is a true spectacle that contains some very interesting concepts, some very unique moments and it was clearly made by people that adore pop culture. Some may find it overwhelming (particularly if they are unfamiliar with many of the references) but you have to see “Ready Player One” if you are a true fan of cinema.