Read the book. It's a light and fun assembly of 80's references (for a plot-based reason!) packaged inside a VR capture-the-flag adventure. My son read it a few weeks ago and enjoyed it while getting none of the references... we had a fun weekend chasing down arcades with video games from the book (Joust features at a key early plot point).

Could the film be better than the book? Hmmm... Can you think of any VR movie that's better than the book it's based on? I can't either.

I'm not optimistic about the movie, but what I like about the trailer is how they seemed to have licensed a fair bit of 80's nostalgia (I loved seeing the Iron Giant in there, the Delorean from BTTF, Freddy Kruger getting blasted) which is really the important trick for adapting this book. (i.e. I really hope they licensed Ultraman.)

If you are a fan of 80ies nerd culture and you want to read a well written but not very deep science fiction book, it is a quite entertaining read.

IMHO, use the time to read a better book. Try Graham Greene if you haven't already. Or Aldous Huxley.

If you want a contemporary sci-fi page-turner, 'The Martian' was much better.

I would be VERY surprised if the movie delivered as much as the book, given the necessity for intellectual property rights in film.

thought it was terribly written, and I'm a fan of 80s stuff