A great adaptation for a great story

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2018)

As a fan of the book, I was intially skeptical that things would be radically different. But what made me so relieved when they announced this movie was that they hired Ernest Cline, the author of the book himself, to write the screenplay. What this does is allow the author to tell a different story that he wanted and had the ability to but still maintain the essence and spirit of the original story (one reason why the Harry Potter series did and is doing so well because of J.K. Rowling's involvement). Because of that, the changes were understandable and they did not hurt the over all story at all.
A bunch of people are saying stuff like 'too much nostalgia' and 'not as good as the book'. I have two things to say to these people:
1) nostalgia is literally on every page of the book. Since it's this nostalgia that Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, chose to use to hide his massive fortune in, and only those true fans of what he loved in the 80s could use it to find his fortune, the nostalgia's overall importance to the story is significant.
2) Books will always be better than the movies. It's hard to condense a 300-400 page book that one could read at your own pace into a movie that has a limited amount of time to tell a story. Some changes will be made, but that doesn't mean that the spirit of the story is missing. The creator of the YouTube channel Cinemawins makes an interesting point: '9 times out of 10 the book is better, so why spoil the movie?' He's talking about the experience and spirit that the movie brings. And since Cline was involved in the screenplay, that spirit of 80s nostalgia being used to forward a coming-of-age story and the characters using that nostalgia to hunt down the greatest fortune in history which is hidden in a massive video game is everpresent in this movie.
If you like the 80s and even early 90s, you'll love this movie. If you love the book, you will enjoy it if remember that changes happen between book and movie. If you want a good enjoyable experience then go see this movie because it's one this year's best movies so far in my opinion.