SHOCKINGLY DUMBED-DOWN AND SOULESS

Rating: 4/10 (27 June 2018)

Reading the book a few years ago felt a joy and although it's never going to be a classic it felt like I was watching a movie rather than reading a book and it was a fun romp that also warmed my heart.
Books like "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline are meant to have a live-action version. Whoever's read it that I know feels the same way.
I was thrilled Mr. Spielberg was on for doing the movie and got excited.
Casting came out and I was fine, actually very fine, especially with Sorrento being played by Ben Mendelsohn.
Went to watch the movie and it had none of the cool or important stuff from the book. Normally, I don't mind re-doing some bits (LoTR fan, but liked the movies so much, even with alterations), but there is almost nothing left and the plot, if I can even call it that. Characters lacked any development that made them so great in the book and the pacing and editing were a complete mess. Hardly wordy of a starting director, let alone Speilberg.
What happened to this project is beyond me. The book was written so easily to film, the cast was really good, the director, but in the end we got a dumbed-down, super-cut with heavy alterations that is nowhere at all as fun or as interesting as the book.
If I give the characters other names you probably will never tell that it's "Ready Player One" that is how much has been hacked, re-written or totally skipped from a really good source material!