In a not-so-distant and gloomy 2045, the late James Halliday's parallel virtual universe euphemistically called the "Oasis", alleviates the burden of a depressing daily life, with millions of online users preferring the vast and colourful cyberworld over their dystopian reality. As anyone can be anything he desires within the Oasis, the dedicated gamer, Wade Watts–or, better yet, Parzival, after his avatar–is obsessed with finding an elusive Easter Egg hidden meticulously inside the code, to inherit not only an immense fortune but also the game's total control. Three trials, three keys, a cut-throat competition, and an army of professional no-joke players who only want the same thing. Can Wade pull off a surprising victory? In the OASIS anyone can be what they want. James Haliday is the richest person in the world and the creator of the OASIS, an MMO AR Simulation. The morning of his death sparks a worldwide fascination with the decade in which he lived, the 80's. It also starts a hunt for his fortune through a game within the game while changing a young man's life forever! Well, I finished the book last night, and I have to say that it was just AMAZING how so LITTLE of the book… actually made it into the movie!!!<br/><br/>AND how MUCH of the movie plot was TOTALLY NEW (IE totally different from the book!)<br/><br/>If I had disliked either the book or the movie… that might have been a criticism… but in THIS case, BOTH book and movie STOOD on its own; and STOOD WELL.<br/><br/>So I'm just saying… that I'm rather amazed what a TOTAL rewrite the movie received, and given that, how incredibly GOOD the movie turned out to be!!<br/><br/>One of the things about the book that I loved so much was the detail in which the author referenced ALL the VERY EARLY video games, and VERY EARLY computers!<br/><br/>As someone who had purchased a Radio Shack TRS-80 as my first computer, moving on to Apples, and MANY of the other early computers in my early employment (anyone remember the PDP11-23???) the degree of nostalgia, just regarding the litany of EARLY computers that Ernest Cline reviewed, repeatedly, in the book… was music to my ears.<br/><br/>Then ADD TO THIS the DETAILS of playing the VERY EARLY video games; we're talking Asteroids, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Joust, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Battlezone, Table Tennis for Two, Q*bert, and Tempest!! These were MY favorite arcade games, but really, just a PORTION of the whopping 57 computer/arcade games, mentioned in the book.<br/><br/>I CAN understand the need for a re-write, to make this story comprehensible to the modern audience (avoiding the details of playing the games, as is in the book), while still including enough of the references to the legacy early computers and arcade games… NOT TO MENTION the early Techy Movies (such as "War Games") and early Adventure movies (over 87 movies were referenced directly!) to really connect, directly to me. OK, yeah, I'm 68 years old now, LOL, but young at heart… for eternity.<br/><br/>I think it's VERY RARE, and nearly IMPOSSIBLE for ANY movie, ANY story, to manage to bridge the gap between generations, as well as "Ready Player One" managed to do. This MAY be (IMHO) the MOST successful movie (and book!) to have managed to pull this feat off! I really can't think of a near second!.<br/><br/>Lastly, I will say that I feel privileged to have been able to watch "Ready Player One" in a modern Hi-Tech Digital theater (yes, they have those in (expat) Thailand, LOL), as the amazing graphics and graphic realizations within the movie deserve to be seen on the BIG SCREEN. Having said THAT, I can't wait for a HD version of this to show up on the Internet, as I TRULY need to watch it a few more times, to be able to catch all the nuances I'm sure I missed the first time, as I was being totally overwhelmed by this masterpiece of Steven Spielberg; quite possibly one of his finest works, if not his finest. I knew this movie was going to be a master piece before I even walked into the theater. Before I went I heard that there was a book similar to the movie so I decided to skim through it and after watching this, I can assure you that the movie is roughly 10 times better than the book. I think the best parts of the movie are all the the fun nerdy references. As a gamer who is raising a girl gamer I can say that the references pulled me into the movie constantly. And I think what makes the references so much fun to follow is how the good graphics pull them all together. The story was amazing but had a couple bad points but I will still give a high score because of all the great gamer references and excellent graphics Because Spielberg seems as eager as Wade to get back to the digital fantasy world he’s created, a lot of the human element is elided or glossed over.
Rekiajaiga replied
295 weeks ago