I thought the movie was going to be like watching the book?

Two words for you:

LICENSING

Are you a great, big ol' fat person?

I never expected this to retain much of the book's reference material because of the aforementioned licensing rights. No way any studio could secure all those properties without astronomical rights fees.

Luckily it wasn’t! (I’ll address that down here in a moment...)

Maybe it’s just me since, you know, previous complaints have been made about the lack of 80’s music in this film. But I, for one, quite clearly heard a BUNCH of 80’s songs throughout the entire film (Bee Gees song notwithstanding). Ergo, I find this complaining rather odd. No, not every scene had a big 80’s hit playing or anything, yet the 80’s soundtrack was still prominent to my ear. Furthermore, I for sure noticed the plethora of 80’s pop culture references made, seen, and heard. How could I not? I mean, honestly, you wonder where all the 80’s memorabilia and stuff was? Either you expected waaaay more than what was shown or you and others aren’t very perceptive (I am, not sorry hehe).

Indubitably not all the characters and litte details seen in the film’s Oasis pertain to the 80’s... but most of it does. The big changes made from the book? You say that as if this is the first time you ever saw a movie based on a book. The funny thing about that is, while the book has its charm, a lot of people don’t even consider it a great book to begin with. In fact, this rarely happens but the general consensus is the changes made to the film were for the best. You read that right, many are saying the film improved over the book. That may be blasphemy to you, but put simply: the film failed to capture what you perceived as a superior adaptation.

Anyways, RPO is a wondrous, nostalgia-fueled and very current film that succeeds.