Stephen Spielberg's Most Disappointing Movie Is Finding New Life on Prime Video

1 week ago 15

Published Jan 24, 2026, 3:18 PM EST

Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with a substantial amount of experience under his belt. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. Using his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's been able to tackle a wide variety of articles.

Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg's delivered plenty of iconic films, from Jurassic Park to Minority Report. He's also seen some of his films receive a less than flattering reception, particularly The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Hook. Spielberg would admit that he "felt like a fish out of water" when filming Hook, yet it isn't considered to be his most disappointing film. That dubious honor goes to Ready Player One, adapted from Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. Despite its notoriety, Ready Player One has landed on Prime Video's Top 10 lists at the time of writing (according to FlixPatrol).

Ready Player One features a story tailored to Spielberg's sensibilities: in the year 2045, the majority of the world's population utilizes the virtual reality simulation known as the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) as part of their lives. When the OASIS' co-founder James Haillday (Mark Rylance), dies, he leaves a video message stating that whoever finds three hidden keys that lead to the "Easter Egg" he hid in the OASIS gains full control over its systems, and inherits its fortune. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) embarks on a quest to find the egg, guided by Halliday's love of 80s pop culture. Looking at Ready Player One's reception, it seems to be another win for Spielberg with a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a $607 million windfall at the box office. So why is it considered to be Spielberg's most disappointing film?

'Ready Player One' Was A Hit, Until Online Backlash Happened

Wade Watts prepares to enter the OASIS in 'Ready Player One'.

When the Ready Player One novel dropped in 2011, it received near-universal praise. NPR called it "a winning, geeked-out page turner" while USA Today said that it made Ernest Cline "the hottest geek on the planet." Part of the draw of Ready Player One came from how it utilized pop culture references throughout the plot; most of the clues that lead to Halliday's keys are tied into movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or video games like Pac-Man. For anyone who was a fan of those properties, the thrill of reading about them in a popular novel was undeniable.

By the time that the first trailer for Spielberg's adaptation rolled around, the mood toward Ready Player One had shifted significantly. Viewers took to social media to express their disdain, mocking passages from the book and saying why it was "everything wrong about nerd culture". In an article for Vox, writer Constance Grady pinpointed the rise of the Gamergate movement as a key reason why opinions on Ready Player One had changed, particularly with how certain characters act.

"All of these issues may have seemed trivial or unimportant pre-Gamergate — but by 2015, that was no longer the case. Now, they were all many critics could see when they looked at Cline’s work. What used to seem fun and frothy and harmless in Ready Player One was dead; Gamergate killed it."

While Ready Player One came out before Gamergate, there are some elements within its narrative that haven't aged well. Chief among them are Wade's friends Daito (Win Morisaki) and Sho (Phillip Zhao), who dress as a samurai and ninja and don't get much characterization beyond that. Wade's romance with fellow OASIS member Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) also veers into uncomfortable territory. Many fans believed that Steven Spielberg had his work cut out for him, but to his credit, he actually delivered an adaptation that keeps the core story of the novel and updates certain parts.

Director Steven Spielberg in a panama hat and Hawaiian shirt wearing headphones and holding a stop sign with an alien sticker on it against a space backdrop.

With 'Ready Player One', Steven Spielberg is Reflecting on His Role in Pop Culture

In the same vein as Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg manages to keep the same plot as Ready Player One, while also making some major changes to the narrative. Chief among them is Art3mis' role; instead of merely being a love interest, she wants to tackle the corrupt corporation IOI as they utilize OASIS users for indentured servitude. Spielberg also managed to narrow down the veritable cornucopia of pop culture references by cutting out most of the references to his own work, with the major exceptions being Wade's replica of a DeLorean from Back to the Future and the T. rex from Jurassic Park. The result is a more focused narrative that lets the audience dive into the OASIS, rather than be overwhelmed by it.

Spielberg also uses Ready Player One as a vehicle to explore his own place in pop culture history, specifically as the father of the modern blockbuster. It's especially apparent in the way he handles Halliday's backstory, transforming the hunt for the keys into a meditation on Halliday's life. The ending is the biggest example, as it has Wade coming face to face with Halliday's digital "ghost" who encourages him not to make the same mistakes he did. Ready Player One may not be perfect, but it's better than some film fans have painted it out to be.