Ready Player One has been one of my all-time favourite novels for a long time now, so naturally, I went to see the movie on opening day in theatres. It is also now available at Bizarre Entertainment for anyone who may have missed it while it was in theatres.
The novel was written in 2011 by Ernest Cline, and is set in the future, just more than 25 years from now.
The future isn’t bright. It is run amok with seedy characters and people who live in squalor. Wade Watts is a young adult who live in the “stacks,” which are travel trailers and mobile homes piled on top of each other like far-from-glamorous condos.
Enter The Oasis: a massively multiplayer online role playing game through virtual reality (VR).
MMORPG? Is there a longer acronym once VR is involved? MMORPGVR?
Seemingly, everyone lives through this virtual reality as whatever they please. Their avatars range from cartoon to realistic, and everything in between.
Watts is one of millions of people looking for a hidden Easter egg in the game that will gain him the fortunes of the creator, who died and left this treasure behind.
Of course, there is all kinds of drama that comes along with finding the egg, but with his crew of friends, they fight tooth and nail against big corporations, who will stop at nothing to win the game for their own personal wealth.
The movie is well done. It’s great, and full of nostalgia, since the creator of the game James Halliday was obsessed with the ’80s.
But… It is wildly different from the book.
This is obviously common when converting a lengthy novel into a two-hour film, but the story line has changed a lot in this case.
There are a few similarities, like the antagonist’s Mechagodzilla avatar, and the stacks, but Watts really shouldn’t have even met his girl crush until the very end.
Oh, and every battle to find the next “key” is different. Maybe the directors thought the Dungeons and Dragons references would be too much for the general public, but who knows.
The adaptation was great though, there’s no arguing with that.
There may have been a few too many creative liberties taken that veered away from the original storyline. This makes it very difficult to rate Ready Player One.
If I was basing this strictly off of how different the novel is from the book (this isn’t your average Harry Potter debate), I would only give it two popcorns.
But, since the movie actually impressed me so much, it can have eight out of 10 popcorns.
