An Expansion Of The Book, and That's Awesome.

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2018)

I read the book twice and loved it.
And I loved this movie equally.
So many of the reviews I'm reading here lament that it was different from the book, and have given it 1 star because of that. For real? 1 star?
You know what? We should be thankful that a completely original, complex movie like this is even getting made in this age of franchise, indie and remake hell. And, by Steven Freakin' Spielberg, no less.
So there were big differences from the book. So what? So much of the good stuff remains. The stacks? Check. The Oasis? Check. Easter Egg Hunt? Check. High 5? Check. Bad guy Sorrento, MechaGodzilla, Cataclysm? Check. Check. Check. It's all there and it looks totally amazing.
The new stuff? Loved it. The backwards race was so cool. The Shining! Holy crap, what a killer and unexpected FlickSync, executed to perfection. And, and, and.
Why should the movie have been a complete retread of the book? Bringing a book like this to the screen must be a mammoth project. Surely we as moviegoers, who watch and love movies can understand that it's not as simple as 'oh well, we'll just make a different movie because we can or should'? A book like this is so geeky, so long and involved, so chock full of its own Easter eggs, that it would be nigh impossible to make and EVEN HARDER for a general moviegoing public to digest were it a literal, step-by-step version of the book.
I see this as exciting and unexpected, an expansion of the book's ideas into a movie format. I hope that people who watched and enjoyed it, will now pick up the book and really, truly get into the world that inspired this absolutely wonderful film.
Ready Player One rules!