Ready Player One : Book VS Movie

Reading Ready Player One was one of the most satisfying experience in my entire life. I reviewed the book back in 2016 and fangirled so bad about it.  It climbs up easily being on of my top 10 books of all time. Following that rank, Lashaan had to read it (he made it a mission to read all of my favourite books hah) ! With that said, since I already reviewed it back in 2016, I asked Lashaan to share his thoughts on the book for this post.

Lashaan : Ernest Cline brings us the ultimate 80s kid source of geekasm. It is action-packed and highly nostalgic, but ultimately, it really is a blend of Willy Wonka with The Matrix. The story follows Wade Watts as he vows to find the Easter Egg hidden by the creator of the OASIS (a virtual utopia) that would give him access to a huge, really huge, inheritance. Along the way, Wade Watts, also known as Parzival inside this virtual reality game, ends up meeting friends and foes, running into insane gaming challenges and ultimately doing all kinds of impossible feat.

The book written in an addictive prose and delivers so much geeky facts for fans to enjoy. Those who aren’t a 80s kid or a gamer will either end up hovering through all those references or looking them up for their own personal culture. Those who are, on the other hand, will find themselves thrown down memory lane and smile their way through the whole book. 

“The reason why this book is so memorable is it becomes alive, the OASIS becomes a world where you want to discover and to enjoy but knowing really well the consequences of that false perception of reality. The characters become your own freinds and all the people of OASIS becomes your family. This book and movie are released in a very relevant period of  virtual reality blooming.”  -Trang

YES AND YES X1000. 

I was very excited to see this movie because I have so many expectations. And you know what? I wasn’t disappointed ! I think Steven Spielberg did it. It’s extremely hard to reproduce all of Ready Player One elements on screen. Just from all the references in the book to the rich Oasis world building but he managed it pretty easily.

He incorporated the nostalgia of the 80s and 90s via the soundtrack (AMAZING SOUNDTRACK BTW), we can get a glimpse of some of the pop culture icons and easter eggs all around Oasis. I mean, this whole plot IS ABOUT an easter egg after all.

He changed the challenges : a bold move which I find was executed brilliantly (this same move is may be why some of the novels purists will hate the movie). Why I find it genius? Because people often forget that the cinema medium is not the same thing as a book. Some elements would work in books because they have words but they won’t work on screen to the entertainment of being visualized. They also have to keep in mind that not all the people have read the book. So changing the challenges was Steven Spielberg’s way of introducing the characters and the OASIS.

The villain. Oh god he was awful. I’m sorry but I pictured a very psychopath CEO and what I got is a pathetic child who can’t even remember his own pod password. WTF? I was very disappointed because he seemed to have even more screen time than the main character or any other character.  Every time he appears on screen, I was like this must be a joke.

Finally, I wish they kept at least the diverse characters from the book, they do it pretty well with the side characters but why cast a skinny muscled dude as Wade?! The whole point of the book was to show that any kid can become who he is if he has the passion for it and Wade in the movie is the typical skinny fit YA star who has it all. I’m sorry but that was not the point of the book.

Did you read the book!? Did you watch the movie? What do you think about it ? 😀 

Big thank you to Penguin Random House for the book movie tie-in edition and Cinema Montreal for the premiere movie passes ❤ 

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