Rules: explain why
Ready player one.
That has to be one of the cringiest movies I’ve seen, is tries so hard, too hard with it’s “WE LOVE YOU NERD, YOU’RE SO COOL FOR PLAYING GAMES AND GETTING THIS 80S REFERENCE” message and the whole “corporation bad, the people good” narrative seems written for toddlers… The fan service feels cheap and adds nothing to the story.
Finally, they trying to make the people believe that very attractive girl with a barely visible red tint spot on her face is “ugly”… Like wtf?
Yet it received decent reviews plus being one of the most successful movies of that year.
I think you hit the nail on the head answering OP’s question, sorry you didn’t like it! To be fair it wasn’t popular when it came out and became a cult classic in the 00s. I think it captures an absurdist side of America of the 90s (not to mention starring Buscemi, one of my favorite actors)… bowling alleys for social meet ups, roughneck Vietnam vets, drug-slipping Porn kingpins. I watch it maybe a couple times a year when I have a hankering for a White Russian :)
I’ll watch it again at some point so my review is under review