A Book A Week

Ernest Cline's Ready Player One rocked the literary world with a killer combination of 80's pop culture references, relatable characters, and a clever adventure story. The novel had such a broad appeal that a movie version was inevitable. Enter Stephen Spielberg, a director who built his career making the kinds of films that Cline's novel holds in such a high regard. Despite the status of cultural icon, choosing Spielberg to direct a big-budget sci-fi/action movie was a seemingly risky idea. He may have built his career on the epic scale movies that Ready Player One was destined to become, but he has focused more on smaller budget, historical films over the last ten years. Still, if anyone was up to the task of making Ready Player One into a hit, Spielberg was still a pretty safe bet.

Like the book, Ready Player One revolves around Wade Watt's journey through the Oasis to capture Halliday's Easter Egg. It is the 2040's and Watts is living in the slummy stacks, a towering collection of run-down mobile homes. At this point in history, man has explored every piece of earth and nearly depleted all of the natural resources. People largely take refuge in The Oasis, a virtual world that was crafted and governed by the genius James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he reveals that an easter egg has been hidden within the codes of his world. The finder of the egg will take complete control of The Oasis.

Beyond that premise, the book and film version of this story take very different directions. While both stories see the characters facing three challenges to ultimately reach the egg, the book and movie challenges are completely different. In the novel, the challenge are more about the mind than physical acts. Because film is a visual medium, Spielberg elects to make his challenges involve physical tasks and visually unique settings. Smartly, the film broadens its appeal by making references that are more widely known than the specific video game and Dungeons and Dragon lore. To be fair, keen eyed viewers will still spot several references that were mentioned in the novel, but there are more nods to different pop culture icons that there were in the book.

I'm usually not a fan of movies that stray too far from the book, but Ready Player One ends up being an exception to that rule. With Cline co-writing the screenplay, the film maintains the spirit of the novel while offering a fun and visually dazzling experience. For his part, Spielberg proves doubters that he still has the ability to make the kind of movies that have been missing from his filmography for the past 10 years. I'm happy that I can now enjoy both the movie and book for the wonderful and unique pieces of pop art that they both are.