The book is so much better (spoiler alert)

Rating: 4/10 (21 March 2018)

BIG SPOILERS AHEAD
I realise that if they'd stuck rigidly to the plot in the book the film would be 12 hours long and some of the technology they'd need doesn't exist yet so some changes are inevitable, but.... ouch, some of them really sting! For example, they miss out how poor Parzival is and the fact that he can't just hop from planet to planet (he has a multi-directional treadmill in the back of his van hideout, for crying out loud!!); they don't explain the Oasis set-up at all actually (no mention of the realms and themed planets, no mention of basic avatar clothing or the fact that it's free to enter, very minimal mention of stuff in the Oasis costing real money); they completely miss out school, so no explanation of where he got the visor and gloves etc (and no school planet...); no mention of the scoreboard change being a MASSIVE newsworthy item; barely a mention of Parzival and all the other Gunters' obsessive study of Anorak's life (there's a 'museum' instead that people go to in order to study his life and likes); they change ALL the methods/situations around getting the keys, including all the clues, gates, challenges etc; they make it seem like it takes about 2 days from start to finish, when it actually took months; Parzival meets up with Art3mis almost straight away instead of at the very end; Og is barely in it; Art3mis goes into IOI as a result of getting caught by them instead of Parzival going in as part of a clever and risky plan; plus, they really pushed the relationship between Art3mis and Parzival into much more of a soppy love story (leaving out where she cuts off all contact with him for weeks); the one that disappointed me most though was that they didn't do the War Games challenge, where Parzival has to be "in" the film (I realise that would have relied on a massive technological leap to make it happen but I really wanted it to be in there!).
Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, I will say that if you haven't read the book - or if you have, but don't allow the changes to bother you like they bother me - then it's quite a good film. My husband really liked it and he hasn't read the book. Mark Rylance is fantastic as Anorak. I would probably rate it 8 if I could let the changes slide, but I can't. I wanted to give it a 5 or 6 but have settled for a 7 because I know I'm letting the plot deviations get in the way!