So the first thing that surprised me about this movie is that it’s a completely star-studded cast. I knew it starred Matt Damon, but also Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor — even the smaller parts are like Benedict Wong, Donald Glover, Mackenzie Davis, and Nick Mohammed (aka Coach Nate from Ted Lasso). Nearly everyone in it is someone you’ve seen before in something.

But the next thing that got me is that it’s a nerd movie.

And so that sounds kinda redundant in the modern movie environment, where Marvel superhero movies are literally the most popular form of entertainment in all of human history, Star Wars is the only plausible competition and there are like six of those a year, and every epic fantasy franchise in existence is being filmed. But… remember a time when that wasn’t true? When being a nerd was this genuinely weird thing, and we would consume totally-unpopular nerd literature and play ultra-niche computer games and all that?

Yeah, this feels like it harkens back to that era in a way I’m not used to seeing. It mentions Zork II and The Leather Goddesses of Phobos. When it name checks LOTR, they bring up Glorfindel, who wasn’t even in the movies. It’s really into JPL. They didn’t make nerdy science fiction movies this good in 1992, but if they did, this would have been the most beloved film ever made for an entire generation of pre-internet nerds.

And yeah, it actually is good. I am extremely allergic to nerd pandering, but this didn’t feel like Ready Player One-style pandering; this felt like it was coming from inside the house in a sincere way — and then that sincerity was executed by a bunch of people who knew what they were doing. All those big-name stars, obviously, but also Ridley Scott directing and Drew Goddard with the screenplay.

I don’t know if any non-nerd would like this — I think probably yes, evidence suggests they like a lot of nerd stuff now that they’ve gotten over their old-style hangups about it — but highly recommended to anyone who grew up reading science fiction novels.