Movie Review: ‘Ready Player One’ is way more fun than expected

Whenever a movie comes to theaters that was based on a book, it is hard to tell how successful it is going to be. The young adult book-to-movie craze was going strong for a while, but once “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” ended, a series of groaners and stinkers caused the trend to die down.

That being said, there are movies based on books being released all the time, and “Ready Player One” seems to be quite the successful one.

If you have read “Ready Player One,” you would know that the book is jam packed with film references, video game in-jokes and so much content that it is a wild ride until the end.

Movies sometimes have a hard time recreating that magic, but when you have a director like Steven Spielberg at the helm, it is pretty difficult to mess things up.

“Ready Player One” is about a dystopian future where everyone ignores their real life problems (like an energy crisis and rampant poverty) and spends nearly all of their time in a virtual world called, “The Oasis.”

The creator of the Oasis passes away and leaves behind an “Easter Egg” somewhere in the games, and whoever finds it first, gets control of the entire system and the entire fortune, which is worth well over half a trillion dollars.

In this world, you can be anyone, do anything and go anywhere you could possibly imagine, so it is not hard to see why there are so many different possible ways to make this movie.

It is common knowledge that it is next to impossible to include every last detail of a book into a movie, so directors have to get creative with their adaptations. The tricky part with “Ready Player One” is all the references to other movies, video games, books, TV shows and music that needed to be in the film.

Once the production team reached agreements for the rights of most of the property (such as “Back To The Future’s” Time Machine, or “King Kong” himself), the movie was able to take off. The only problem is that some of the best references in the book were unable to make it into the movie, which sometimes caused a rift between moviegoers and book readers.

On top of that, Spielberg felt it was necessary to reorganize the entire plot structure from the book and change it for the movie. This is not necessarily a bad thing and more often than not, I am inclined to trust Spielberg’s judgement. However, this means that some of the most memorable parts from the book never made it into the film, which definitely may sour some people’s feelings for the film.

The movie was acted wonderfully by all of its stars, such as Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance. Their acting also showed off a wonderfully polished script and plot that flowed nicely and did not seem to have any hiccups.

Where the movie truly shines is in its CGI, computer-generated imagery, effects. When you have a world to create where it’s only limits are your own imagination, it is truly a wonder to behold when the finish product graces the screens. The effects and visuals are absolutely something to behold, and the movie looks glorious on the big screen.

As a whole, “Ready Player One” is an amazing movie, especially if you had not read the book before hand.

If you had, then prepare for the movie to be more of a re-imagining of the book, as opposed to a true adaptation.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the theater, and I could tell everyone else did as well. Do yourself a favor, and go watch this one on the big screen. You’ll thank me later.