So…I’d always intended to see the move – I see most new Science Fiction / Fantasy movies and I love the fact that I have so many decent choices these days. Having said that, I also always try to read the book before I see the movie adaptation. I like to experience the Author’s vision before I’m overwhelmed by the interpretation of the Director and the various production companies – sifted through Marketing’s sense of what will sell. I did read Ready Player One a few weeks ago and posted a review – which you can read here:
http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-ready-player-one-2-9-2018/
The book has been positively reviewed – an average of 4.5 Stars from almost 17,000 reviews on Amazon. I gave it a thumbs up as well – for reasons which are somewhat disconnected from the quality of the writing. It definitely belongs in the Teen Fiction category – the MMORPG construct of The Oasis and the coming of age components will resonate with my childrens’ generation – but Ernest Cline very cleverly flooded the story with 80’s pop culture content that makes it fun for old guys like myself. Ultimately, what I liked most about the book was its ability to serve as a pretty knowledgeable history of computer gaming and gaming culture. You can see all that in my review.
Transitioning to the movie – which also did relatively well with the critics – 74% on the Tomatometer and 80% Audience Score – I have to say that I enjoyed it – but not nearly as much as the book. It was a well made, fun movie – not a surprise given the fact that it’s a Spielberg project – and it faithfully captured all the Teen-oriented components of the book – the portrayal of The Oasis as a huge gaming environment, the teen love interest, the coming of age aspect. The parts of the book that were shortchanged were the 80’s pop culture component – it was there but it just wasn’t as pervasive – and the great historical overview of the development of computer games and gaming culture. It didn’t put me off on the movie – I found myself enjoying the 80s rock / pop sound track and I kept calling out all the 80’s game and pop culture images – but it just wasn’t woven into the bones of the movie narrative the same way Cline managed to do so with the book.
In Spielberg’s defense, if he’d wanted to preserve that aspect of the book, he would have had to commit to multiple episodes – you can’t contain all that in a 2 hour film – and that just wouldn’t have worked for viewers.
I also found the antagonists in the book – IOI, it’s management and it’s minions – a bit more forbidding and threatening in the book – in the movie, they were a little too cartoonish – but that’s defensible as well.
Overall, it was a fun film but given a choice between reading the book and seeing the movie – I’d go with the book every single time.