Ready Player, Forget What You Read

So on Tuesday I had the wonderful opportunity to catch an early screening of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, thanks to a friend who knows the level of my geekdom. I have been on the fence about this movie since the first trailer was released. For those who may not know, I'm a book lover. So of course I hardcore judge any movie based on a book and start my critiques before I even watch the film. This movie was no different. The trailer showed more than enough aspects so different from the book that I was generally worried I was going to be a Ready Player TROLL.

So are you ready, Player One? Cause the first thing I have to say to anyone who has read Ernest Cline's book is FORGET EVERYTHING YOU'VE READ!

No seriously. There is maybe 10% of the book in this entire film. And you know what? I think it’s better that way. Not because one is better than the other, I'll be watching it a 2nd time to make that call, but because they can each stand alone and be enjoyed. .

THE GOOD

The movie is nothing like the book. It's so different that in the first ten minutes of the movie I mentally closed the book and threw it across the theater. This would normally be a bad thing, but in this case it made it so that I couldn't anticipate what was coming or how we would arrive at specific milestones. The movie is fun and entertaining. It's one hell of a nostalgic ride, though not for any of the reasons you would assume after having read the book. Some of the references are completely different. All work and no play makes Wade a dull boy (you'll understand when you watch it). The quests are different but I figured they had to be cause no one wants to watch 2 hours of Parzival playing Pac-Man.

I absolutely love Samantha Cook as Art3mis even if I don't necessarily agree with how or what her character was portrayed in the movie. I can close my eyes hear her voice and sass and automatically picture her as the Art3emis I grew to love while reading the story.

THE BAD

The movie is nothing like the book. Of course as a book lover it is also a bad thing. There were certain scenes I was excited to see that just never came. I'm about to get into some serious spoilers so if you don't want to know STOP READING NOW!

My biggest pet peeve was the focus on Art3mis and Parzival. Their story in the book was refreshing. Yes they were into each other but Art3mis knew that the quest was more important. She even leaves Parzival to himself when he got too close because she didn't want to lose focus. The book has this

wonderful build up of when their finally going to meet their non avatar selves. Well Steven said fuck that shit, we're going to make their relationship a HUGE focus. Art3mis gets her one moment of "go fuck yourself Parzival" but then quickly takes that back and then guess what? THEY MEET. Yeah, face-to-face somewhere in the city not too far from the Stacks. WTF?!?!?!

Pet Peeve #2: The movie lacked any depth or darkness. And I can already hear some of you trolls growling about how the book had no depth or darkness either. Well...

Give me a second to explain myself. Let’s start with something basic, like when Sorrento threatens to blow up the stacks that Wade's family is in. How he half doesn't believe him and the other half of him doesn't care. That is a certain level of darkness. Knowing your family is about to be blown up and you're just like, "whatever, let me save my suit though."

Now here is the more important depth and darkness issue I had with the movie. They completely eliminated the Daito/Shoto situation that leaves Shoto with the taste for revenge. Yea that's right. NO ONE DIES. So Shoto's deep necessity to go after Sorrento, the way he sacrifices himself in the epic Oasis battle is not as deep and meaningful. It's just some cool shit he pulls our when Artemis and Parzival need it the most.

I feel like Steven Spielberg didn't know if he wanted to make this movie a kids film or a teen film or what, really. So he removed anything that would be "too much" for the youngins.

Last pet peeve: Holy rush of a movie. The movie does have a run time of 140 minutes and while I didn't feel the two hours, it did feel like we were rushing to the end. The quests were easily completed, relationships were quickly established, all for a mad dash to the end which then took some time to finally get the moment we had all been waiting for.

REVIEW END CAP

Ready Player One is fun and entertaining. If you go into it expecting some award winning masterpiece you obviously have the wrong expectations. The graphics were good (though I'm interested in how it'll hold up in a few years). The acting was good and the changes in the story fit the movie even if I personally think some of them were unnecessary.

From one book lover to another? Just forget what you read. Go in there with the idea that you know the shell of the story. There's a world you know, the quest you are aware of and the ending you know is sure to come, but enjoy that you don't know how you'll get there or who will be leading the way.

#Readyplayerone #stevenspielberg #oasis #parzival