GAME OVER... A terrible adaption of the book.

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2018)

I can't believe that Ernest Cline sat and had input to the screenplay that murdured his fantastic book.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
if you read the book as an 80's nostalgia or gamer and found the way in which the story I sound through the geek filled history of console gaming then prepare to be completely disappointed.
This film gives literally the slightest nod to the idea of the books story and then creates its own alternate version.
Here are a few major issues:
1) The events in which the keys are discovered are depicted in a very different way from the book with the first being completely made up.
2) No back story on Ludus or the education system Wade Watts is enrolled in and the multiple copies of educational worlds.
3) Ogden Morow only appears at the very end of the film, he does not appear in the night club and aid in stopping the IOI attack.
4) Wade Watts doesn't infiltrate IOI, instead this version has Samantha (who is now some kind of rebel uprising leader - what?) captured by IOI instead!
5) Daito isn't killed in this version of the story. A part of the story I thought was quite the critical mechanism to really pump the readers hatred for IOI.
In terms of the film existing without the book having ever having been written - I feel Spielberg has done much better in the past. Some of the effects were stunning and additions such as the Iron Giant were welcome as they added perhaps a bit of general audience relateability. However the story even if the book didn't exist sort of chucked you in, the love and romance was very in your face pretty much from the start with no build up.
As someone who read the book however, extremely disappointed in both Spielberg and Cline for murmuring a great story.