A Soulless Adaptation

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2018)

I don't typically take time to review or comment on anything, but I had a lot of reverence for the book, and feel it necessary to sum up my feelings on seeing something I loved put into a blender and half poured out onto the big screen.
I went in fully expecting things to be missing. After all, you cannot fully translate the epic scope of a nostalgic adventure like RP1 in just two hours. But from the opening scenes, I found myself seething in the theater seat. Where was the Wade Watts who was going to school and had to come up from nothing? Why was I supposed to care about this character all of the sudden? The movie did very little to develop the characters at all, and instead smashes you over the head with visuals and pop culture imagery, as if to say, "These are the things you love and are nostalgic for right? Yes? Then you have to love this movie!"
But no. What you love and appreciate about a great story like RP1 isn't all of the pop culture, though that is fun; it's caring about Wade and the other characters growth throughout the story. The movie left that out. Instead it moved at a break neck pace with no build up. Does Wade grow at all over the course of the movie? Is he different at the end than he is in the beginning of the movie? No. I didn't get the impression that he did. So why am I supposed to like this movie? Because it has a bunch of references to things I love in it? I'm sorry, but that isn't enough for me. I go to the movies for a good story, not for a slide show on pop culture. At it's essence, this movie adaptation didn't feel like a good story that kept me wanting to see the characters succeed.
I could have accepted some changes to make it more cinematic, but the movie felt like it took the basic plot from the book, and that was it. The way he wins the keys are almost entirely different, and my favorite part in the book when he purposefully infiltrates IOI turns into the heroine getting captured and him needing to save her. Okay, I can understand that. Let Wade be the knight in shining armor and save the damsel. But Art3mis was never meant to be a damsel.
The best part of the movie to me was the performance by Mark Rylance who played James Halliday. They managed to capture his spirit and tragedy throughout the movie, and I will credit it with that. A stellar performance by Rylance.
The visuals were great and all, and maybe I'm being too harsh and need to see it again, but I didn't feel invested in the characters or the story the way I was when I read the book. None of the characters changed throughout the movie and at the end of it, I left the theater disappointed.
If you are among those singing this movies praises, and loved it, I'm a bit jealous, because I wanted to love this movie. I just didn't.