Not the book

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2018)

If you loved the book, don't expect much from the movie. Most of the essence of the book is lost in the film. The story is supposed to be about this great mystery, a labyrinth of clues and research leading to the discovery of the three gates and ultimately the egg. The movie, instead, uses 30 minutes of voice over to painfully tell us exactly what's happening and what will happen. There is little to no character development, key plot points are either changed or missing completely, and characters who were prominent in the book are left out of the film. The first gate is changed, which I don't have a huge problem with. The problem I do have, however, is the fact that everyone knows you have to win the race to get the key. This ruins the spirit of the competition, no one is supposed to know what needs to be done to get the first key, it's a giant mystery, that's the point!
Scenes at Ogg's were left out, Wade is not inprisoned in a loyalty center only to escape by hacking the computers, there are really no scenes in the basement where they work out the clues, there are no spaceships, and on and on. The biggest injustice was the way in which Wade gets the extra life, which is by beating Hallidays high score on Pac-Man, on the game that was originally in a Pizza shop from Halliday's youth. Instead, he's just flipped a quarter simply by watching an old clip of Halliday.
Again, don't expect much if you're a true book lover. It was a fun movie, but ultimately a disappointment.