Thoughts on Ready Player One

Hubs and I roped my dad into babysitting on Saturday so we could be off to see Ready Player One. I read the book when it came out in the 2011 time frame and loved it (and also thought I had blogged about it at one point, but a very minimal poke about here says that no, in fact, I didn't. Or I can't find it. Which is really basically the same thing in terms of who cares.) When Tim started using audiobooks as a way to, hopefully, alleviate some of the suffering of his commute, this was one I grabbed for him right off. He also loved it. And thus, when the movie trailers started coming out, we were both excited. Plus, date night is never a bad thing.

Short review of the movie: It was good.

Longer review (of sorts)

First off, one never heads to a movie based on a book expecting it to completely and accurately reflect said book. Because it just doesn't. There has been one singular book in my lifetime wherein I've found a truly accurate representation and that's the version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root. That movie? You can sit with the book in your lap and read along.

So, that said, I will agree with a friend who said it's true to the spirit of the book.

I suspect what happened is Cline looked at the book and realized there were quite a few slow spots and someone who knows things about movies said, "Um, slow spots don't translate super well to film." Thus those were removed and replaced with car chases and drones.

All in all, it was enjoyable and I'd watch it again quite happily, just as the book is enjoyable and will most likely be rotated into the re-reading cycle at some point.

So if you're on the fence? Go see it. If you haven't read the book but enjoy sci fi, go see it. If you read the book and are a purist about movie adaptations, stay home and re-read the book.