‘Ready Player One’ delivers a pop-culture bonanza, but strays too far from the book

Posted on April 9, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve said many times over the 12 or so years I’ve been reviewing movies, to be careful of expectations. Despite my best intentions, I sometimes find myself getting caught up as well. Such was the case with “Ready Player One,” directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the best-selling novel by Ernest Cline, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Zak Penn.

In my defense, my expectations going into “Ready Player One” were that it would actually be based on the novel of the same name, a book of which I am a huge fan. What we got, however, was a film based on the barest skeleton of the book’s story and characters, telling a familiar, but quite different, tale that nevertheless ends in pretty much the same place.

This left me quite conflicted about the film, which in turn has made it hard to write this review. As a movie, it is a solid, entertaining science-fiction flick with tons of pop culture references. As an adaptation of a beloved novel, however, it is nothing short of disappointing.

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