Monday, April 02, 2018

Ready Player One


I finished the book and I saw the movie on the same day. I didn't intend for that to happen, but that's just how things worked out. I don’t feel like I can give a fair evaluation of the movie. I think it was good. It was entertaining. It was fast-paced, so there were no lulls. The effects were good. I liked the actor who played Parzival, I think he did a good job. I liked the energy of the movie. I like the more modern references that the included, it was fun seeing the Spartans in the big battle (part of me was expecting an AT-AT though). I felt like Sorrento could have been more menacing. I would have liked more Og. I wanted more of Aech’s backstory. I would have liked more for Daito and Sho as well.  Also, why did they change Sho’s name. Shoto is a great name. So, while entertaining, the movie left me with mixed feelings. I actually think if I hadn't just finished reading Ready Player One, I would have liked the movie more. My sister-in-law, who didn't read the book, thought it was great.

The book was fantastic. I loved all the references. I liked the tasks after finding each key, having to find each gate. I liked the final gate. I liked the perfect Pac-Man game. Parzival was brilliant. Art3mis was brilliant, strong and fierce, yet shy. I loved Aech, everything about his story was so relatable. I loved how much we could learn from Aech. Og was hilarious. He was perfect. I loved castle Anorak. I loved the final battle, but also the final scenes afterward. Parzival grew so much as a person. He grew up. The contest wasn’t just about escape for him, it became so much more. Ready Player One definitely exceeded my expectations.

I’ve read that Ernest Cline is writing a sequel. I’m excited to read it. I know that some people are nervous because Ready Player One is such a great stand-alone novel, but I’m excited. Instead of being left to wonder if Parzival ever reveals that final secret, I’ll be able to find out. I’m excited to see how Parzival and Art3mis grow together, to find out what happens to Aech and Shoto. What about Og? Does Sorrento get away with it? What about humanity? Can the world become a better place?

So, I definitely recommend the book. It’s just so much fun. I think that I recommend the movie.The movie is good for people who haven’t read the book. For those who have read the book, I recommend taking the movie as it is and not as what you expected it to be.

6 comments:

  1. Seeing the movie on Thursday. Haven't read the book - yet.

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    1. Did you see it? How did you like it?
      Even if you've seen the movie, I think you should read the book. It's different enough that there will still be surprises.

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    2. We enjoyed it. Although I didn't think it was a *great* movie it was certainly a good one. I really liked the CGI bits - especially the Shining sequence which I thought was superbly done - and we had much fun spotting the pop culture references. Definitely going to read the book. Half of the fun of reading it after the movie is to see what they missed out/changed and looking for more detailed explanations of things they had to gloss over in the movie.

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    3. Glad you enjoyed it.

      I really recommend the book. Sometimes I'm discouraged from reading the book after I've seen the movie, thinking I know what's going to happen, but that is definitely not this case with this one. The movie was surprisingly different than the book.

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    4. I saw an interview with Spielberg where he said that he needed to look for a story within the book he could film. So I'm expected them to be two very different things. That's often a *good* thing - after all books and movies are very different media.

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  2. I enjoyed the movie but have not read the book. Shortly after seeing it I actually tried a vr game and got violently motion sick. The future is not for me.

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