Before I start this review, let's get one thing straight, the book is nine times out of ten better than the movie. This instance is no different.
Now that that's out of the way, let's look at this book and movie, shall we?
Wade Watts lives in a future where life is spent in the OASIS, an extensive virtual reality. In the midst of a world-wide economic collapse, the creator of OASIS dies, leaving the VR world to whoever can pass his series of tests and find his Easter egg. Sure enough, our boy Wade manages to become a contender, and sure enough, Wade gets targeted by an evil organization. Wade has to decide what team he's on, if any, and help save the world from, well, ads on a VR headset (and slavery but the ads were heavily talked about in the movie and it made me laugh).
I started reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline a few months back because I saw a young adult movie was coming out. I try to read all the young adult books that get turned into movies, because, well, I'm a sadist and don't want to enjoy any movie I see.
At first, I didn't enjoy the book. Honestly, I found all the 80s references annoying, and I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s. But something magical happened about a quarter of the way through the book, the writing became excellent. I mean, I was sitting in my office on lunch laughing my ass off excellent. I even would take pictures of passages and send them to my boyfriend.
But like with all books, I didn't want to read the end. This is because I don't like when things end. I usually don't like the ending and would rather the characters live on in my head.
Then I saw the movie, and I knew I had to finish the book. The reason being, well, the movie just, was not good. Not only did the movie just scream product placement like I, Robot, the story was completely changed to make it more kid-friendly. Relationships were rushed, character-development disappeared, and plot devices were left to the viewers' imaginations.
So, last night, I decided I had to finish the book.
I have to say, if you like the idea of living in a VR world and enjoy RPGs, give the book a read. Slug through the obscure 80s references and enjoy Cline's sense of humor. Than proceed to watch the train wreck of the movie. Or skip the movie.
Yeah, just skip the movie.
Rating 4/5
One star deducted for what felt like forced references. I like pop culture, but this was kind of ridiculous.