I mean seriously, what in the hell? Dude! Stevie! You had
the teen movie to end all teen movies. You pushed the envelope of movie making
so many times. You made a monster movie with barely any monster in it. You made
children fall in love an alien. You made Harrison Ford a bigger star than
George Lucas ever could. YOU MADE DINOSAURS WALK THE F*CKING EARTH!
What happened? D’you decide to play it safe? ‘Cause I think
ya did.
The book was a treasure trove of movie worthy moments, and
you didn’t use any of it.
I will admit that I was a little discouraged that the book
was nearly six hundred pages long. But I burned through it in three days. I
haven’t read a book this size this quickly since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. That was nearly eight
years ago for me. The book was slow burner because it had to. Wade/Parzival
provides a ton of pop culture references from movies, music, television, games
and anything else to help him on his quest to find the egg.
I’m gonna break it down.
It made absolute sense to move Wade from Oklahoma City to
Columbus entirely. That was a large chunk of the book we didn’t need.
Both opened up with the death of James Halliday, creator of
the virtual reality game OASIS. The book gave little chunks about Halliday
throughout the book, especially when the story demanded it. It allowed us, the
reader, to get a glimpse as to how that came to be. Like why did Halliday
choose Dungeons and Dragons to be the
location of the first challenge? Halliday was introduced by his friend, Ogden
Morrow. And in that chunk the author left a cliffhanger like bit of
information. For instance, Dungeons and
Dragons was where Halliday first met Kira. At the end of the book we go back
to that snippet of information, and we find that Kira’s D&D character,
Leucosia, was the password to the final challenge.
The movie, however, just vomited exposition on James
Halliday and his death. Everything we know is from whenever anyone says something
about Halliday, or when they visited the Halliday Journals, which doesn’t exist
in the book.
The biggest question I had at the end of the movie was what
did Halliday die of? The movie never gave us that answer. In a single sentence,
on page 5, Halliday was shown to have a 76-year-old cancer-ridden figure. Cancer.
He died of cancer. Thank you, Page 5 for clearing that up.
Much of the book's beginning exposition composed of Wade and his
upbringing on the OASIS. He even showed some nihilistic opinions of how society
has lied to him and how he doesn’t believe in God, Santa Claus, or the Easter
Bunny.
Instead of this, the movie relied too hard on Easter eggs of
its own to focus on developing any of the characters. This is vitally important
for later on. Not Wade getting religion or anything, but this is a starting
block to understand his position and why he feels this way. He lives in a
sh*tty time in the world. The OASIS is the only place where he feels wanted. We
watch Wade progress throughout the book to actually begin to care for another
human being, especially with his relationship with Art3mis. We see him falling in
love with her. He’s always focused on her. When she leaves him. He is heart
broken. But rather than sit around moping, he decides to change his attitude
and prove himself to Art3mis. That he is not living in a fantasy.
The movie doesn’t show any of that. Instead he gets
reconciled when he told how beautiful she looked, even with her birthmark. Then
everything is fine and dandy.
I’m undecided as to whether or not Wade attending school was
important. School was nonexistent in the movie. In the book it kind of was
important. If it wasn’t for his boring day in Latin class, he would not have
cracked the riddle to the Copper Key. In the movie, Wade mentions that someone
cracked the first clue and a portal opened up. I’d like to know what that clue
was, and why did it trigger a Mario Kart game on steroids? I guess it made
sense to change the challenge from a game of Joust to a race. It’s much more exciting watching a ton of cars
plow through Manhattan instead of one person beating a video game character at
another video game. But to be honest, I would have enjoyed watching Wade meet
Art3mis for the first time this way instead of recognizing her and saving her from
Kong.
It didn’t make sense, however, that you have to obtain the
key, and then travel to another sector in the OASIS to clear the gate. The
movie did good with dropping that altogether. I think it would
have been difficult to recreate WarGames
and The Holy Grail, two titles Warner
Brothers didn’t have, so they focused their energy on The Shining.
The three challenges in the book was to play Joust to win the Copper Key, reenact WarGames to clear the Copper Gate,
collect the trophies in Zork and blow
the Cap’n Crunch whistle to win the Jade Key, play Black Tiger to clear the Jade Gate, jam out on Alex Lifeson’s
guitar and place on the altar to win the Crystal Key, play Tempest, reenact Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and get
the Easter egg in Adventure to clear
the Crystal Gate and win the contest. In the movie, it was to win the race to
get the Copper Key, journey to the Overlook Hotel, from The Shining, and dance with Kira to win the Jade Key, and get the
Easter egg in Adventure to win the
contest.
The very beginning of the book had Halliday playing Adventure and getting the Easter egg
planted in it and talking about the creator wanting to let the world know who
made it, thus creating the Easter egg. I said to myself if that is how this
whole thing ends, I’m gonna be super pissed. And guess what? I’m super pissed!
I understand that they had to cram a 600-page book into a
2½-hour movie, but the time it took to solve the riddle to the Jade Key feels
more realistic. Even with all that knowledge, they can’t right away know what any of
it means. That ruins the suspense and the twists, like when Art3mis obtains the
key first, and then Sorrento.
Nolan Sorrento was better fleshed out in the movie, and it
gave Wade a better target. In the book, he was just a random corporate asshole
that attempted to kill Wade. We don’t get to hear much of him aside from what
Wade tells us from watching the Scoreboard. In the movie, he’s a corporate
asshole that would plow anyone who got in his way. We also saw that he was
better flawed. In the book, he was an actual video game designer who knew his
stuff. The only flaw he had was his greed. In the movie, his knowledge for pop
culture was taken away, and we watch him struggle to match wits with Parzival
and the High Five. He consults iR0k, who was also better fleshed out in the
movie, to snipe
Parzival any way he can as well as use the Orb of Osuvox to
create a shield around the final gate.
The whole Wade going to the loyalty center scene in the book
would have been brilliant to see. The whole time, I was going “WHAAAAAAAT?”
Though The Shawshank Redemption isn’t
owned by Warner Brothers, you could have a little Thomas Newman score playing
underneath while we watch him work through IOI and break out? Or maybe
something from David Holmes, who did the music to the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, a title Warner Brothers does own? Oh, my
God, such a wasted opportunity.
One thing I left out in the book review, but I think it’s
important to discuss, is the part about Wade buying a sex bot. I understand that
to make an entertaining kid’s movie, you got to cut some things out. This part
I’m okay taking out of the movie. But it’s important to understand how Wade
felt doing it, and how he reacted to it. He buys it, after Atr3mis dumps him,
in self-pity, raging hormones and curiosity, but he immediately regrets it
because it didn’t feel right. This, and I think it also has to do with Art3mis’
absence, shows that he is not living in a fantasy. Not entirely. We watch him
fall for Art3mis. He even considered marriage. He wanted to meet her in real
life. When she leaves, he feels destroyed. This is an important theme here.
Separating reality from fantasy. When he sees her distinguishing feature, he
knows it’s still her underneath. He didn’t care how she looked. That’s another
theme: Acceptance.
Speaking of acceptance, in the time when we need it most,
the filmmakers sweep Aech’s entire backstory under the rug. The reveal of
Aech’s sexuality gives us a better understanding of how Helen ticks. She
created the male persona because her mother did the same to give them a better
living status. It also tugs a few heartstrings when we learn that Helen’s
mother kicked her out over her dating a woman. Helen was nervous talking to
Wade wondering how he’d react. He didn’t seem at all surprised. It made him
feel better about talking to her on personal “guy” stuff. He initially felt
embarrassed when he finds out Aech is a girl. Anyone can understand that. But
it’s what Wade did next that was really something. He didn’t think anything
less of Helen/Aech. Aech was his best friend, and he is glad to have Aech on
his side.
Shoto’s name in the movie is “Sho.” (?) Both Daito and
Shoto/Sho weren’t completely fleshed out in both the book and the movie. In the
book, Daito didn’t really have a choice; IOI killed him. I’m okay with making
Sho eleven years old because that’s how it should be. A group of video game
nerds should include at least one preteen. In fact it elevated his status in
the movie. Wade called him badass, and Art3mis nearly smothered him. However,
they only existed in the book because Wade needed friends after he lost touch
with Aech and Art3mis. Their backstory was even more swept under the rug. They
became filler characters.
As I said earlier, iR0k was better fleshed out in the movie.
All he really was, in the book, was a Biff wannabe, who was schooled by
Parzival. If only they were able to implement that into the movie, it would
give iR0k some motive rather than just be a hit man for Sorrento.
The ultimate showdown in the book was filled with more
twists and surprises than in the movie. Regardless, the Orb of Osuvox had to be
shut down. When they had a Short Circuit
robot walk up to the orb with a bomb and detonate it in spectacular fashion,
the filmmakers decided to go with Art3mis whispering the magic words from her
personal Magic 8 ball speaker. I guess it was a pretty funny form of premature
jubilation from iR0k saying the shield can stay up for 10,000 years, and
Art3mis shuts it down two seconds later, but I would very much like to see the Short Circuit blow up the orb and
shutting down the shield.
The Cataclyst was another showstopper that failed to the
stop the show. In the book, they all suddenly died. In the movie that would
have been awesome to see, and you would say, “Holy sh*t! What just happened?” But
instead, the filmmakers played the “Tried to Stop the Enemy from Destroying the
World and Failed” card. However, the movie did do something right about what
happened next. In the book, Wade plays a perfect game of Pac-Man and wins the magical quarter, kind of giving away the
ending. In the movie, he wins a bet with the Halliday Journals curator, gaining
the magical quarter. Although, now that I think about it, it would be hard to
imagine what it would be used for, like it could have started a game in the
final challenge that needed a quarter to start.
Over all, the story has a number of messages to the reader,
from acceptance to exploring the nature of growing up, to knowing the
difference from reality and fantasy, to courage, friendship, and the dangers of
constantly video games, watching movies, and not going outside. You know, you
can learn the darndest things at a gas station. I’m sure you have seen the Gas
TV at the pumps at most gas stations. I learned what gregarious meant from the Word of the Day, which means “sociable,”
and I now realize that Halliday’s company, Gregarious Games, is an oxymoron, as
people who play in the OASIS become more isolated than ever before, especially
when they took part in the Hunt. Halliday himself pointed out that Wade should
not make the same mistakes he did. Halliday was always afraid to socialize. He
advised to get outside every once in a while. The book actually ends with Wade
saying that he hadn’t thought about logging back onto the OASIS since he met
Samantha.
One thing I just remembered. Its Ogden Morrow’s involvement
through the whole thing. In the book, Og, as he preferred to be called, left
Gregarious Games because he and his wife, Kira, were tired. But before Halliday
dies, he entrusts Morrow with overseeing the contest. In the movie, almost none
of that was in there. Morrow was in charge of the contest, that was true, but
he was forced to sell his shares to Halliday. In the book, Morrow, I like to
think, cheated by bringing the remaining High Five to his private estate to
complete the hunt in peace. In the movie, Morrow didn’t really exist until the last
ten minutes. It focused, although, on Halliday’s relationship with Morrow.
Morrow was the Rosebud of the story, as Wade put it. Losing Morrow as his best
friend was the worse thing to happen to Halliday instead of never telling Kira
he loved her. The movie tried to add something to that plot device by making
them go on a date, hence the Shining
challenge. I think D&D is the only way to express their relationship
because there seems to be no way for Halliday to get the courage to ask Kira to
go on a date with him. I wonder if Kira ever had any feelings in return and was
just waiting for Halliday to act. If that is so, did she really have a good
relationship with Morrow? I guess so because they were happy until she died,
but I wonder if there was something in the back of her head that made her wish
she was with Halliday instead. You wanna pull some heartstrings? Put that in
there.
In all honesty, I believe Spielberg has been falling off his
game ever since he got his Masters. If you notice, some of his best movies, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jaws, Close Encounters,
Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and Saving
Private Ryan were before 2002. Sure he’s had some success since then, Munich, Lincoln, War Horse, but nobody’s
talking about them. My theory is that there are a set of rules you have to
follow once you earn your degree to make you look sophisticated and sh*t. But
that’s just not fair. To a be good artist, you learn the rules so you can learn
to break them.
Photo Credits
https://www.kisspng.com/png-tattoo-clip-art-wrestling-ring-openclipart-vector-6687659/download-png.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One#/media/File:Ready_Player_One_cover.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One_(film)#/media/File:Ready_Player_One_(film).png
I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for an important message that will be posted tomorrow.
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