Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One debuted to a standing ovation

Steven Spielberg's upcoming sci-fi film Ready Player One received a standing ovation on its debut at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. Needless to say, the reviews that followed have been glowing.

• The first full trailer for Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One is packed with Easter eggs and references

Critics and filmmakers who were amongst the first people to see the film have taken to social media to lavish praise upon the ET director's latest, a dystopian, virtual reality-centric flick littered with 1980s pop cultural references, calling it "joyous and thrilling".

"READY PLAYER ONE: So so so much movie. Sometimes too much but what I kept thinking over and over again was 'my kids are gonna LOVE THIS.' It is joyous and thrilling for the people who it’s designed to joy and thrill," RogerEbert.com editor Brian Tallerico tweeted.

Rotten Tomatoes' senior editor Grae Drake called it "one of the most technically brilliant things I have EVER seen".

A certain corner of the internet had been wary of the film since the first reference-packed trailer dropped back in July, expressing the fear that it would be all throwback, no heart.

But those fears have been eased by the first reactions to the film, which brought the premiere crowd to its feet. Check out a clip of the standing ovation at the Paramount theatre in Austin below.

Ready Player One stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Simon Pegg, and Lena Waithe. Read some further praise from critics and filmmakers below:

Ready Player One will be released in UK cinemas on 28th March 2018