Great movie, didn't read book, reviewed as a movie

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2018)

My quick rating - 8,1/10. I will make this clear. I did NOT read the book. This is watched and reviewed with that aside and do yourself a favor, don't read the IMDB reviews because all you will get is "the book, blah blah blah" and zero stars. In other words, people who don't understand how to rate a movie. This flick is a visual beast, I cannot stress the sheer amount of detail that is conveyed through this movie. It is almost astounding that the CGI has come to such levels as this, to blend in and out of the real world seamlessly. Of course, through action scene after scene you know it is all animated, but you won't think a lick of that as you just watch in awe. Granted, a $100+ computer generated demo wouldn't be worth your 2.5 hours, but if you take a story and mix in some characters as well, you will find a hit. I really didn't think Spielberg could still pull off such action, yet with emotion, but alas, he does. The characters themselves, aside from the lead, aren't introduced in the real world until a ways in, so you kind of learn who they are long before you see. Kind of like the Internet, huh? What this movie has, is the creator of a video game world, called the Oasis, that exists in virtual reality and basically everyone lives in the oasis. It provides your gaming, dreams, life experiences, etc. All the things you want to do, but can't in the real world. This is partially one of my flaws of this movie. Assuming the Oasis is "Facebook" lets say (last income report shows Facebook has 1.35 billion unique members) what do you think the chances of 5 people becoming online friends all live within miles of each other? Ok, put that part aside but it just isn't gonna happen. So as our characters are very briefly introduced, minus the main character, Wade (Parzival), we learn little things about them through their interaction in the Oasis. There really isn't much development to them, then again, they didn't want a 4 hour movie either. The nuts and bolts are there, enough to make sense to their avatars in the Oasis. Well, the creator (who had to be around my age) dies, but leaves behind an easter egg (hidden treasure in the Oasis to win) that grants the winner of three keys, in various challenges, the rights to the entire Oasis, and all the stock, and power that comes along with it. As anyone would want this sort of power and money (the word trillions is used) everyone is vying to solve these puzzles and win. This is where all your action comes into play. But along the way, human emotion does get involved, and leads to the actual underlying theme of this. Yes, throughout you may have thought it was just "How many 80s references can you jam into a movie?" but really this is more of the game creators life unfolding to another generations eyes. Along with this, the movie also does a decent job of pointing out the real life struggle of how trapped one can become into this online world, ultimately to the point of losing ones identity. There are quite a few ideas that are tackled in this film and though they aren't all crystal clear in how, the end will at least give you an idea of what the movie was trying to say.
Now back to the book thing. One movie, in particular, that is imitated in this movie is "The Shining" and is done quite well, I might add. I will tell you this, if you, like me, read the book first, and then saw the movie "The Shining" you would be irritated due to the changes that were made. But if you go on, as I did not, and slam that movie, just like people slam this one, then you don't know how to critique a movie for its own merits. I am not going to go out of my way to read the book, and if I do read it, and agree that much was lost in translation, I won't be coming back to change my opinion. Just sit back, enjoy the plethora of cool references to the past, and enjoy a great movie for what it is. A visual masterpiece, a story that may become all too relevant in the near future, and a good time.