It was a very meh movie. 5/10 is my rating for it.
I enjoyed the robot designs and their over the top kooky personalities. Chris Pratt gives a fun performance but it's your standard fun guy part he's known for. The film takes place in the 90s and leans on the nostalgia for it's aesthetic and music. Be prepared for malls, Mtv news, and the flying toaster screen saver. The soundtrack does the Westworld thing and plays 80s and 90s hits with the slow piano bit.
Millie Brown isn't great in this. She's not a Mary Sue or a girl boss in this, her character is just kinda bland. The two antagonist, Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci, are not great. Giancarlo's General Bradbury is the same Esposito villain character we've seen before. And Tucci just walks through this performance.
The biggest problem for me is, and maybe I'm stupid, but the Russos didn't seem to nail the analogy for the robots. Do they represent blacks in the civil rights, American Indians, slavery? There is also this line in the movie
Humans are a tire fire in the middle of a lake of piss
Yeah this movie doesn't have any dark undertones or anything. It's a shade away from a Spielberg movie. Even the dystopia of being addicted to the helmets isn't touched on, like it is in Ready Player One.
They seem to hint at it? But it gets totally glossed over somehow.
Those helmets are destroying everything in the book, but seem like a good time in this movie :/
Here's a question: there's hundreds of soldiers donning their helmets & sending their drones out to fight. Those drones get destroyed by the hundreds... where did all the soldiers go? They take their helmets off and... do nothing?
Just one of dozens of problems in the film, eh? Dozens.