Good flick, not much chance of us getting a pin out of it tho sadly...

The author wrote the screenplay did he not?

Because filming a huge road race may be better on the big screen than somebody playing Joust? I liked the fact that I knew the story going into the movie, but I had no idea what exactly was coming next. The second challenge I felt was better than anything in the book.

I'm happy with both versions I can have and enjoy going forward.

He did. just looked it up. I think it's a brilliant move, you get to write 2 versions, as no movie ever holds up to the book anyway, why not change it to suit the screen.

The book is one of my favorites of all time. I can't recall having a more enjoyable experience while reading a book. I kept stopping to look up various references (like the Tomb of Horrors module), then my mind exploding when I saw the module cover & realized "Hey! I remember playing that as a kid!". The book was REALLY speaking to my childhood memories. Ultraman! R2-DJ! Meccagodzilla! I even learned about things I had no clue about, such as the 1970's Japanese Spider-Man's battle robot Leopardon. Such an enjoyable read.

The movie changed quite a lot from the book, but that's what I expected. The mass movie going public does not know Leopardon & Ultraman, but they do know Iron Giant. That's an acceptable trade off, and there were many examples like that. Many changes for convenience sake, but tons of easter eggs too. There was no way they were going to fit everything into the movie, nor would they be able to get all those pop culture licences. I'm really looking forward to watching it again on bluray, so I can pause it & spot things I missed on the first viewing. I can't think of any other movie that has this many "blink-and-you'll-miss" easter eggs.

The thing I enjoyed the most was that Sorrento's avatar was based an evil Alex Ross version of Superman. That completely blew my mind. I've always dreamed of a CGI adaptation of Kingdom Come, so seeing that Superman version on the screen sure gave me a thrill

Ready-Player-One-Easter-Egg-Evil-Superman (resized).jpg

I REALLY wish they would have mocked up a wizard blocks game! That would have been cooler.
-S

Really enjoyed the book, and had low expectations for the movie. The movie ended up being even worse than I was expecting. Like others have said, these are two different stories, they just happen to have the same title. I'll likely never watch the movie again.

Has anyone that saw the movie first read the book now? Would like to hear that perspective.

Finally saw the movie. Did not like it. The Gundam/Mecha Godzilla was the only thing that kind of caught the flavor of that part of the book. The other capricious substitutions/replacements relative to the original book were a mess. I didn't like that Wade didn't get his swag highrise apartment, then gave it up to be the one that got caught on purpose to get into IOI. If playing 2600 Adventure for about 10 minutes of the film can be exciting enough, then the Joust challenge over 4 minutes would have been just fine. Also, getting the quarter from a random bet from a "computer" was way dumber than getting it from a PacMan in his museum. The movie made a much less cohesive whole than the book as a result of these and dozens of other changes.

I really enjoyed the movie. Strangely enough, even more so on the second viewing. The movie was never going to be as good as the book. Very few are, but if you treat them separately and judge them on their own merits, then the movie is pretty solid. It was a very faithful representation of The Stacks. Other than that, the two were very different.

Worldwide box office is a huge hit and win, even 1/2 way through the year it is right in the mix.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 7.52.18 AM (resized).png

With the mix of like 70% CG and 30% live action, it's the perfect movie for non-US markets. And if you never read the book, you'd probably be fine with what they put on screen. It's just disappointing that the book will never be a movie.

I dunno. Princess Bride was a GREAT book, and they managed to get pretty much all the fantastical elements of the book on screen except the one room where it's pitch black and he fights the monsters by sound. Impressive transition from book to screen. So they COULD have done it with Ready Player One, they just chose not to, which is the disappointing part.

Another change from the book that messed up the story was that Morrow GAVE Wade the quarter that would be key to him winning the game in the movie. Essentially, he directly helped Wade cheat. In the book, Wade found a PacMan in the museum and EARNED the quarter, with no help. In the framework of the story, Halliday would not have condoned cheating.

I finally saw this today and really liked it. Of course I never read the book, so I didn’t have any expectations for the plot.

So now it would be interesting to have you go and read the book and see if you like the movie better. The opposite experience.

In my experience, the book is always better than the movie (unless the movie came first).

In this case they're SO different, it's almost like they're only distantly related. So getting someone with the opposite exposure order would be interesting.

That was one thing I was really hoping to see, when he wins the quarter playing pac-man.

I have never read Pricess Bride and the movie never did anything for me, so I can’t comment on that one. I know that one of my favourite books of all time is Ender's Game. I have read it about five times now along with all the sequel books and spin off books. The movie they made is the biggest piece of shit I have ever seen. Now that was a major disappointment.

Everyone who watched the movie did.

Watch it again. There was no bet. Wade VOLUNTEERS "I'll bet you anything, all my coin" and the Morrow bot never acknowledges or accepts the bet. He just looks up the information, then eventually says "you're right" and insists on giving him the quarter (repeatedly). Morrowbot cheated to get Wade the key he knew he would probably need to win. There was no bet because two parties didn't agree on a wager, nor even agree on the bet before the outcome.

The way Wade earned the quarter with pacman in the book was truer to the retro theme and a better way of getting it to him.

I thought it was funny when cops show up at the end to arrest the bad guy.

Wait...there's cops? Where have they been?

Some of that was too nitpicky and actually explainable, but most of it was right on, especially the part about the quarter.

Ready Player One pinball?

Hmmm.

This would be a nightmare license-wise.

Licensing already destroyed the book to movie transition. It would be even worse for movie to pinball, and they lost a lot of the hardcore fans on the movie transition anyway.

Let me say that Armada will probably be an amazing movie, because the book is absolute garbage.

Listened to the book and thought it was just ok. Watched the movie and thought it was a hot mess. Did not have a lot of fun or wonderment to me. Spielberg did a much better take on the future in Minority Report (criminally underrated movie) than this.

Minority Report is oscar material compared to RPO, but RPO isn't even a great popcorn movie. But loving the book, I discounted the bad reviews for Armada and read that. All the reviews were right - it's crap. Nothing really happens until the last 10-15% of the book, and the other 85% is boring and off-key.

I think RPO has a decent chance of becoming a future cult classic, a "so bad its good / guilty pleasure" sort of movie.

The plot is about as deep as a scooby-doo episode (complete with cartoon villain and dastardly kids ) and it has decent enough visuals you can just kick back and watch an advert for your various fandoms. Heck, there is even a RFM machine at the end for the pinball nerds like us (as noted repeatedly in this thread).

Agreed! I’d love to hear the perspective of someone that saw the movie first then read the book.

Totally agree also with your comparison of the book to movie.

That movie sucked, badly.

280318-ready-player-one (resized).jpg

Has JPOP filed a lawsuit for using his likeness?