A Fun Spectacle

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2018)

Let me get this out of the way first: the movie truly is nothing like the book. If you are looking for a scene-for-scene adaptation, you will not get it. HOWEVER, that does not immediately mean this movie is bad.
I loved the book. I found it incredibly enjoyable, smart, and a combination of all the things I love in fiction. But I knew, the moment I saw this movie announced, that there was no way they were going to make a faithful adaptation. I decided then that my expectation would be: please be a fun movie, don't get too serious, just make it entertaining. The book will always exist and it will always have those emotional moments I love, so if a movie exists too, all I want is a fun spectacle that translates the visuals of the oasis and the idea of this incredible VR system.
That is exactly what I got. Is it a perfect movie? Hell no.
There are many plotholes, the characters are not 3 dimensional, there are conveniences that drive the plot and some will definitely find the references to be pandering instead of entertaining.
Despite all of these flaws, I immensely enjoyed the movie. It was light hearted in the characters interactions and its tone was goofy enough that I knew we weren't meant to take it seriously. It knew that it could not involve a lot of the drama and details from the book, and so it focused on entertaining it's audience with visuals, action and references. I thought the look of the oasis the and real world was perfect. There were a few shots where the action made me think of a video game trailer, and considering most of the movie is set in a video game, I thought that was quite clever.
All in all, not a perfect movie, lacking in some important aspects, but if you want a fun visual feast with some clever moments and entertaining references, you will get it here.
P.S. To those who were devastated that it was not like the book, I'm not really sure what you expected. Much of the book is them playing the games and figuring out the puzzles...how entertaining would a movie be if it showed characters standing and playing Joust?
The aspects I can agree disappointed me were the change of the characters locations for convenience, some dumbing down for Hollywood, and yes, not seeing some of my favorite scenes on screen. What we all need to realize is that this is a big budget Hollywood movie directed by Steven Spielberg...it isn't going to be a deep film about the impact of technology on the lives of people or how a death affects and drives a character... when you have a book like this, Hollywood is going to want to dumb it down a bit and focus on making the audience happy with action. That's just how it works. I'm sorry if you were disappointed...but movie adaptations very rarely capture what the book is about. Let's just hope some people end up reading the book as a result of this movie.