I went to see the film with a friend over the weekend. Like me, she had read the book and was looking forward to how they would translate the 375-page book into a 2+ hour movie. Final run time was 2 hours and 20 minutes. My first impressions were kicked off with the fantastic soundtrack. And while most of the movie takes place in the Oasis, I didn’t mind. I have my own VR Viewmaster and I’ve used it to look at cities I’ve never been too. In 2045 are we going to have be having school in the Oasis?
POP Culture PHD
While Steven Spielberg directed this film, the book had tons of nods to him. When he signed on to direct the film he didn’t want the focus to be on him. In fact at Comic-Con Olivia Cooke who plays Art3mis in the movie, said “He was very adamant of being the least bit self-referential as possible.” Parzival drives the delorean from Back to the Future, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park makes an appearance.
Beyond Spielberg, it’s a Warner Bros movie so the number of WB characters that pop in are fun Easter eggs. From Batman to Marvin the Martian and even the Iron Giant. How? Why? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out!
The Book vs. The Movie
We can all agree that the book is always better than the movie. If you’re expecting a page-by-page translation to the screen, know that it’s not possible. I had my own ideas of how the Oasis would appear, I didn’t expect the animation to be this realistic. I knew there would be some changes to the story. It would be hard to get the nuances of the romance between Parzival & Art3mis and their chat logs into the film. I felt like I was dropped right into the book and I knew what was going on. I was glad to see the friendship of Aech and Parzival perfectly.
