Film Adaptations of Popular Novels

When a popular novel is adapted into a film, die-hard fans usually face a mix of excitement and horror.

A prime example: Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.

*** SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT READ THIS BLOG POST IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK, Ready Player One (2011) ***

Essentially, filmmakers' ultimate goal when adapting books into movies is not to change the story too drastically, so long as they want to avoid backlash from long-time fans. That being said, when a novel is adapted to a novel, there are often important scenes left out, and in some cases, essential characters and themes (at least to the reader's mind). Quite obviously, this happens for many reasons, ranging from funding problems to creative differences. Perhaps, the film director interpreted the novel differently than the rest of us book lovers.

One prime example of a book adaptation being VERY far off from the book -yet a good movie- is Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One (2011).

To see a review of Ready Player One (2011), click here (coming soon).

When fans heard that Steven Spielberg would be the director of the film adaptation of Ready Player One, many were ecstatic. They believed that this enormous amount of information left out due to the lack of ability to obtain rights would be minimized, given that many references were related to films, shows, and books that he was involved in.

Steven Spielberg as the director? Count me in!

The main problem with this particular movie/film is the vast amount of pop culture references. Those of us who loved the book knew right off the bat that there is no possible way to fit all of these references in despite Spielberg's directing. This is primarily due to time constraints and the costs associated with copyright issues. Although Spielberg could have included more of his works, he still made the creative decision to leave many out to avoid impacting the story.

Speilberg decided to change a significant part of Halliday's Easter Egg, which impacted the overall story significantly. In the book, Ludas was important (and Kira's focus on education, considering Wade was raised on her educational programs), and the Gates/Keys were much more complex. Spielberg also adjusted the limerick and changed the Copper Key (rip, amazing joust game with the Litch King). Sure, the racing scene was cool, as was Spielberg's The Shining edition, but fans of the novel missed huge sections of the book that would have been spectacular on screen.

There are also changes to several characters, including Shoto (he is a grown man in the films, and is murdered

As for Wade -the main character- in the movie, he never becomes a loner who uses the Oasis to lose -after first gaining- a tremendous amount of weight, which adds a lot to his overall character.

I could go on and on about this topic for hours, as there are many more instances of change that were seemingly unnecessary. I could also go on about other films and books that could be examined (in-depth), but it is seemingly pointless. And, quite honestly, the fact that so many are inspired creatively by books is fantastic, and should be encouraged!

Tip: view the novel and the film adaptation as two entirely different stories.

Quite honestly, the best approach that I take when watching any movie that is adapted from a novel is to see it as a completely different story altogether. In this particular instance, when you take this perspective, both the book and film are great in their own unique ways.

But, let's just be honest... The book is always better.