The point is, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One isn’t just a wild ride about a kid who’s super into 80s nostalgia and wants to win a video game.
I missed his move from his old hideout near the stacks to his apartment in Columbus where he essentially barricaded himself in an apartment before risking his life to save the Oasis. I missed the stretch of time that passes between locating keys and getting through gates. I missed certain background details like Wade happily making the decision to ditch real world school to take classes on Ludus in the Oasis. But in the case of Ready Player One, we’re comparing a book that covered years of Wade’s life to a film that essentially condenses his experience tracking down Halliday’s Easter egg into one adventure. This is well worth repeating, and something I have to be conscious of often: film is a different medium and certain details from the book need to evolve or maybe get cut entirely in order for the story to play well in this new format. I enjoyed myself during Ready Player One, but honestly? I walked out a little butt hurt. This piece contains plot spoilers for both the Ernest Cline novel and Steven Spielberg’s film, Ready Player One. You may not get to indulge extensively, but it’s got the same flavor, offering up a new way to digest the same themes, concepts and revelations.īefore digging into that idea any further, here’s your spoiler warning. Rather, it’s an extremely condensed iteration of the Ernest Cline epic. Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is neither of those adaptations. Or perhaps you wind up with something like Alex Garland’s Annihilation, a film with a drastically different voice and plot path than the Jeff Vandermeer novel, but one that wound up sparking a greater appreciation for that book upon a second read. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to get two very fleshed out interpretations of a story but with subtle differences that wind up enhancing each other - like Lenny Abrahamson’s film Room and the Emily Donoghue novel. That being said, then maybe it’s only natural to miss certain details that were changed or axed entirely from the big screen version.
We’re human and if you’re talking about a beloved video game, a favorite book, or maybe a comic book you’ve been following for years, it’s natural to have hopes and expectations.
It’s a challenge to walk into an adaptation and keep your focus on assessing that single rendition of the story.
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