Movie Review: Ready Player One

I got to see Ready Player One recently, one of my most anticipated movie releases of the year! Ready Player One made my favorite books of 2017 list, so I was very excited to see this video game story come to life on the big screen. Because of this, I knew that I would want to write a movie review after seeing the film with my reactions and overall rating. If you don't really want to be ~spoiled~ on how the movie differs from the book, don't read on, but other than that I hope you enjoy this review!

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the adaptation despite how much was changed from the book! There was a LOT that was different in the movie, but I honestly think the adaptation was better off with the changes than it would have been if Steven Speilberg adapted the novel exactly how it had been written. 

As is typical of most novels, Ready Player One can be a bit slow to start as the author is tasked with building the world for the reader and explaining its intricacies in a way that allows readers to see the world as the author intended it to be. Building a world in a film is a much faster process and it's more of a "show, don't tell" kind of process. You don't need to spend hours explaining what a world is like you can just show the audience. Because of that, we are able to hop in with both feet into the OASIS as well as hop right into the competition laid out by James Halliday.

I also really enjoy how quickly we are introduced to all of the main characters. Aside from Wade, we get the chance to meet Aech and Art3mis within the first 15 minutes of the film which is so great. Sho and Daito are also introduced to us quite early, but they don't really have major roles in the film until later on. It's always great, in my opinion, to meet our heroes early in films and stick with them throughout the story. I love me some long-term character development!

As I referenced in the beginning of this review, a *lot* of things are changed in this movie to make it a more visually pleasing movie experience. While the main overall premise and characters are the same, 2 of the 3 challenges are different, some of the character situations are different, the climax in "the real world" is done much differently.... there's just a lot of differences. HOWEVER, I really enjoyed these differences. What makes sense on the page doesn't always make sense on the screen, and what was done with the adaptation did make a lot of sense and I was really happy with it.

I also think that the film did better with the issues that I had with the book (you can find them in my book review - there are spoilers in this review so... fair warning!). There were a lot more stakes with the movie, things weren't as ~convenient~ for the characters, and I don't think I heard Wade say "get the hell out of dodge" one time. :P I was just really pleased with the way that those issues were solved, in my opinion, with the movie.

Overall, I thought this was a great adaptation. If you're looking for a visual carbon copy of the book, that's not something you're going to get with this movie. But if you're looking for a fun adaptation that takes the premise and builds upon it, definitely check out Ready Player One, and DEFINITELY watch it while it's still in theatres. The big screen is perfect for this film!

I'm going to give this movie...

5/5 Stars!

Have you seen Ready Player One? If so, what'd you think of it?

Let me know in the comments!