Book was better, but that was a really fun movie! So much of my childhood crammed in there. No complaints really.

Book reader. I thought it was pretty good. My favorite character was the bad guy whose midsection was a skull.

Spoiler:

I found it very odd and poor writing that the others showed up to pick him up right after Artemis texted them. I guess we are to believe that they all conveniently lived in Columbus, Ohio? In the book I remember the Japanese guys living in Japan and the friend living in a different state. That just seemed too easy for me.

I think it was a fantastic movie for what it was; however I did not think it was a great adaptation.

queso1 said:

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Book reader. I thought it was pretty good. My favorite character was the bad guy whose midsection was a skull.

Spoiler:

I found it very odd and poor writing that the others showed up to pick him up right after Artemis texted them. I guess we are to believe that they all conveniently lived in Columbus, Ohio? In the book I remember the Japanese guys living in Japan and the friend living in a different state. That just seemed too easy for me.

I think it was a fantastic movie for what it was; however I did not think it was a great adaptation.

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You could tell this from the trailer. In the book, Wade is from Oklahoma City and doesn't get to Columbus until deep into the story. But the trailer claimed the stacks were in Columbus, which was the giveaway that the locations would be changed.

Right, an explanation that could be derived from the book would be that all the top gunters might want to move to Columbus the way Wade did, in order to take advantage of the proximity to IOI/Gregarious Games (connection speed, research, etc.), although Wade had other reasons for the move as well

queso1 said:

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Book reader. I thought it was pretty good. My favorite character was the bad guy whose midsection was a skull.

Spoiler:

I found it very odd and poor writing that the others showed up to pick him up right after Artemis texted them. I guess we are to believe that they all conveniently lived in Columbus, Ohio? In the book I remember the Japanese guys living in Japan and the friend living in a different state. That just seemed too easy for me.

I think it was a fantastic movie for what it was; however I did not think it was a great adaptation.

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That's a really common problem with book adaptations. When you sell movie right you basically give up any control over the film. But seeing as Cline was one of the.screenwriters, that should have been a very big issue. I think that's what irritates me the most.

nai06 said:

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queso1 said:

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Book reader. I thought it was pretty good. My favorite character was the bad guy whose midsection was a skull.

Spoiler:

I found it very odd and poor writing that the others showed up to pick him up right after Artemis texted them. I guess we are to believe that they all conveniently lived in Columbus, Ohio? In the book I remember the Japanese guys living in Japan and the friend living in a different state. That just seemed too easy for me.

I think it was a fantastic movie for what it was; however I did not think it was a great adaptation.

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That's VA really common problem with book adaptations. When you sell movie right you basically give up any control over the film. But seeing as Cline was one of the.screenwriters, that should have been a very big issue. I think that's what irritates me the most.

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Again, this shouldn't be a surprise. The producers stated very early on in production that this would happen. It was not possible from a business standpoint to follow the book.

I went into this expecting a "film based on a book" rather than a "film version of a book". That really helped. If you go in expecting this to be anything like the book, you'll likely be disappointed.

Okay, so I saw it Thursday night in iMax. For the first 1/4 of the movie I absolutely hated it. Why? Because like I said originally, I have read the book at least 20 times and I sat there asking WTF??? But then once I let that go and just enjoyed it for what it was, I absolutely loved it. No, there is very little adaptation from the book other than the general premise and characters. But damn, what a helluva ride it was. Such an amazing movie!!!

wangus12 said:

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Fogburn95 said:

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I think. Looked like it. Right after he used a Ryu move.

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a Ryu move?

The Hadouken is like the most legendary combat move in fighting games

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Yeah, going off memory from 30 yrs ago. Just remembered that Ryu used it.

Congrats on knowing it's called haikuden or whatever.

My buddy and I actually said "Hadouken!!!" out loud when he did it

It's better to see the movie, then read the book. There were just too many differences for me to enjoy, it was just too annoying each time you waited for something specific from the book, and then it's something else.

The movie alone I'm sure is fun as a stand alone.

Just got home from viewing 2 and really enjoyed it again, maybe even more than the first time. I love the Back to the Future music cues, and spotted R2-D2 after missing him the first time

The crowd really seemed to love the extra life reveal

I wish there were a little more of a Goonies feel in the threat of the company ruining the Oasis for them. As I was walking out of the theater, I couldn't help but think of Mikey talking to the other Goonies about what's it going to be like when they're living in other towns. That sense is what the movie is missing a little of in terms of stakes.

And damn, now I want to watch the Goonies this weekend.

Took the boys to see it yesterday, and we all liked it. It was like a dumbed-down teeny version of the book, and that's even without the high school parts in the book. Even so, it was a good movie

As mentioned above, I realized they couldn't keep to the book due the length (3 keys and gates would have taken too long) and rights. That helped me enjoy the movie anyway since the movie is rarely as good as the movie. Side note, I would have liked to see finding the first key be straight out of the book but I understand having the race as it was entertaining to watch.

However, I didn't like how the changed the characters. They made Wade stupid compared to him in the book. In the book he was a hard working, extremely poor loner that turns into a hero. In the movie he had people bailing him out and telling him not to do things. They also made Sorento a lesser enemy and not as smart as he seemed in the book.

I do wish I could get it on blu ray now, I'd like to see it again where I could pause to confirm some of the stuff I saw and find other items.

Small things like having Battletoads was cool. And it looked like Parzival's belt buckle was the Thundercats logo. I'm sure there are so many other small things I missed.

Noticed it the second time around.

Also had a bigger and more vocal audience last night.

Quote:

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It's better to see the movie, then read the book. There were just too many differences for me to enjoy, it was just too annoying each time you waited for something specific from the book, and then it's something else.

The movie alone I'm sure is fun as a stand alone.

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I plan on seeing it again on Tuesday. This time with the knowledge that it is nothing like the book and hopefully get the full enjoyment out of it

I enjoyed the movie but in hindsight I wish I hadn't read the book first since it only lead to a let down. Should have read the book later like I usually do with these movies.

-it would have been best as a big budget HBO 10 episode series. We missed the whole theme of the first act where Wade can't afford to leave his home planet. They left so much out yet it still felt rushed and it ended up lasting way too long for a standard movie. How does that happen? That's what i get for reading the book first.

-I don't like spielberg directing it. Would have preferred one of the Gen X Spielberg disciples. I don't buy the excuse that they needed him for the licensing and I don't like that he intentionally left out references to his own movies.

-it's not a top 20 Spielberg movie. I saw some twitter talk of comparing it to hook - adults will hate it but kids of that era will love it and adults won't understand. I don't think it will be that divisive but it's closer to hook than others.

AgHawkeye said:

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It is definitely a different experience from the book. It had a Spielberg feel to it. Overall everybody we went with (6 people - all having read the book) really enjoyed it.

Summary of what I can remember from Cline Q&A after the movie last night.

- Iron Giant. Cline is friends with the auther/filmmaker for Iron Giant and wrot it in to the book as a tip of the hat to him. Really wanted Ultraman for the last fight with Mechagodzilla but that was one they were unable to get due to licensing law suits with the Japanese company that had the license. Later decided to work in a bigger part for Iron Giant. Actually got licensing OK'd for Ultraman later but it was too late.

- Shining. Wanted to use a moving that was not in the book for the movie. Spielberg really didn't want to use one that he was heavily involved in. (actually didn't want to use anything he did directly and the effects teams worked hard to slip things by him - see gremlin in the movie) They made a list of movies and Spielberg went for the Shining right away. Clinie said Spielberg was a huge 'fanboy' of The Shining and loved watching him 'geek out' over putting that in his movie and focusing on all the details.

- Director. Cline said they let him make a list of dream directors and Spielberg wasn't even on it because he didn't think it was possible. He had Nolan and I can't remember the other name he mentioned. Interestingly he talked about how it had a "Goonies" type feel to it with the kids banding together. That was clearly a Spielberg item as the book had the opposite feel as they all stayed seperate as long as possible.

- Adventure. Several here mentioned ET and as above Spielberg specifically mentioned not wanting to use things he was involved in. More important however, Cline specifically mentioned finding that Easter Egg in Adventure when he was kid as being a big part of the inspiration for him writing the book. He is actually very good friends with Warren Robinette (the creator of Adventure) and Warren was actually sitting with him last night at the movie. I got the feeling that they were close and there was very little chance that part of the story was being changed.

- Easter Eggs. He talked about all the hidden things in the movie. I thought it was interesting all the parties that got involved putting those in. He mentioned things Spielberg put in but that the different effects teams would also just add things and try to slip them by Spielberg. He noticed new things with every viewing. Specifially spoke about Happy Time Pizza which was seen in the background of the movie and important in the book. It was a place Cline and his friends went to in Ohio growing up.

That's all I remember right now.

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Did you miss the TRex eating cars during the race? Who do you think directed Jurassic Park?

I enjoyed it but it used maybe 25% of the source material. There were way more 90s, 2000s and 2010s references than 80s references which was a letdown. The race was cool, but wish they had at least stuck to the original first key quest so we could incorporate a dungeon into it. All of the characters were portrayed pretty much identically to what I envisioned from the book, especially Aech.

The Shining scene, while well done, could easily have been substituted with scenes from Monty Python and worked just as well. Disappointed that the dance party was not saved by Morrow who was tired of IOI's party crashing.

Yoda said:

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Took the whole family this afternoon. 3 kids, ages 14 to 8. Everyone had a ball. I have never read the book, so I had no expectations there to miss.



I'll agree with someone else that I kept waiting for that Delorean to fly. In my nerd brain, there were so many characters I was hoping to see pop up, so I'm sad to have not seen:

• Gen 1 Optimus Prime
• Silver mask Cobra Commander
• Any Star Wars vehicles (Luke's speeder would have been great in the car race)
• KITT
• Jaws
• M.A.S.K.
• Last Starfighter
• Predator
• Sloth
• Scott Howard, aka Teen Wolf
• Daniel Larusso or Johnny Lawrence
• Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man

References I appreciated:

• Was it just me, or did Parzival wear Han Solo's blaster holster?
• Missed KITT, but pretty sure they gave the Delorean his flashing red hood light
• The Shining, as many have said. Wow.
• T2 Iron Giant thumbs up nod
• Alan Silverstein score and BTTF musical bits
• Atari 2600
• Rare Lex Luther Superman quote
• The Bandit's Trans Am
• Greatest American hero logo on earphones

Not sure if it was my theaters sound mix, but I never felt like the 80's music was blasted the way it should have been with that audio pushed front and center.

All in all, a darn fun flick that I look forward to seeing again at home with the pause button.

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Don't forget madball bomb during final fight scene.

Saw it today in 3D. Thought it was one of the best 3D conversions I've seen.

I've read the book a number of times and have really enjoyed it every time.

I enjoyed the movie, but left feeling underwhelmed, which I think was unavoidable. This wasn't anything like the disappointment in an adaptation like Ender's Game was. I enjoyed some of the changes from the book and the nods to the parts that were left out.

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, I think it was a little too dumbed down and things like motivation and the setting suffered.

I do think it's a movie will improve with repeated viewing as I try to catch all the references.

Enjoyed it.

Loved the book. Enjoyed the movie.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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His belt buckle was Han Solo's, right? Minus the logo.

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Belt was Han's. Logo is Thundercats

I understand the good nature and meaning behind closing the Oasis two times a week but that is incredibly narrow minded. Oasis drives the economy. I felt like them doing that also kind of took away some of the importance of the Oasis that already wasn't explained if you didn't read the books.
Still enjoyed the movie though

I give the movie a thumbs up if you haven't read the book, and thumbs down if you have.

Did anyone figure out what Halladay was in the game, since he wasn't an avatar? Apologies if this question has already been answered.

Yoda said:

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References I appreciated:

• Was it just me, or did Parzival wear Han Solo's blaster holster?
• Missed KITT, but pretty sure they gave the Delorean his flashing red hood light
• The Shining, as many have said. Wow.
• T2 Iron Giant thumbs up nod
• Alan Silverstein score and BTTF musical bits
• Atari 2600
• Rare Lex Luther Superman quote
• The Bandit's Trans Am
• Greatest American hero logo on earphones

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Not sure if this is pathetic, me being a fanboy, or just good memory, but I immediately recognized the sound of the Aliens pulse rifle.


Edit: And Merlin's magic spell from Excalibur (I don't recall if that was in the book)

Took my 9 year old son to this. He enjoyed it. I loved it. As a book reader, I wasn't expecting much in the way of strict following, and wasn't disappointed by the movie itself. Very Spielbergian throughout.