On the surface, Spielberg's next film looks like a desperate cash-in of an old director into dumb tentpole "franchise filmmaking (which he effectively is responsible for).
But I think this is a clever scheme. Spielberg has made it clear that Jaws and his early Hollywood jobs were... jobs. He's more than redeemed himself with real art films and has spent the last 15 years exclusively directing mature political dramas.
The trailer for "Ready Player One" is almost grotesque. Random nostalgia "pop culture" mascots battling. The cliche handsome teen protagonist escaping a Hunger Games situation. This is brilliant commentary.
Spielberg is holding a mirror to cinema. This is a satire and deconstruction of the moronic, cheap escapist exploitation delivered to the next generation while we SPEED towards a future ruled by a tiny community of rich puppetmasters. I mean, the symbolism is obvious, but the brilliance is 100% of the reactions online from Millennials are "Look how many pop culture characters!" "Wow, so much CGI!" "This looks just like the last 10 scifi teen action films! YAY!"
Spielberg isn't great because he makes popular family-oriented fantasy films. He's great because they work on a higher level as anti-propaganda, cleverly masked as idiotic, sugary pop. He inspired a toxic legion, an entire "generation X" of talentless pop filmmakers, but now he's trying to undo their misinterpretation of his aesthetic.
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