Gamer (2009)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The world of gaming has been growing for years and years, and will continue to grow as long as new and exciting games are being produced. The film Gamer (2009) represents one possible outcome for the gaming community in the not-so-distant future using a beautiful combination of several unique characteristics: presentation being key. It is common knowledge that when the year 2000 came around, widespread panic ensued because it was thought technology would begin destroying the planet in some horrible fashion only SkyTech would be able to commence- a ridiculous notion to those alive today. Gamer not only elaborates on the fear of technology, it also presents several reasons for technology to be feared. The film is shot in a sporadic way, offering scenes of nothing but plot twists and action, which is very similar to how video games are presented. In a video game, the characters get right to the point of what they're saying, and the plot builds from hardly any background information at all, just like this film. The motion capture in a game is also very rough and meant to really place you at the scene, and the filmography also attempts at presenting this connection. The film Gamer wasn't an outstanding movie, but it was, however, a wonderful presentation of the gaming community and a great way to express what it is like to be a gamer to the non-gaming personnel.

"Gamer" is a mean-spirited, misogynist, poorly edited and poorly shot action film. The characters are cliché and the world the story is set in so vaguely defined that it's impossible to understand what is going on. I'm not usually one to criticize a film for feeling familiar because if you look deeply enough, a lot of people take inspiration from myths or common story elements, but when your movie brings in nothing new and doesn't even feel like it's trying, I call foul.The film is set in 2024. The gaming industry has been revolutionized because now, instead of playing regular video games people can command prisoners to fight to the death in a "real life" video game called Slayers. If you don't feel like having convicts fight each other to the death? Well that's OK because you can also have other human beings dance around, perform dangerous stunts, have gratuitous sex or embarrass each other in a tamer game called "Society" where poor people get paid to have their bodies controlled by others. Our hero is John "Kable" Tillman (Gerard Butler), the most popular pawn in the game of Slayers. There's something sinister about this futuristic society, and if the probably evil Castle (Michael C. Hall) is to be taken down, Kable will have to take control of his own body! What irritated me about this picture is that the story just feels like an excuse to have stuff happen. Really important elements of this world are never explained, they're just there and you have to take for granted that it works the way it does. I don't mean in the same way that a far-out premise like say... "The Running Man" either. I'm talking about stuff that could plausibly happen but is presented in a way that makes no sense. For example, the rules or goals of the Slayers game are never established. What is the objective of the game? Do the slayers have to run to a shelter before they are killed? Do you have to murder a certain amount of people? Is there a time limit? You never find out. How has Slayers revolutionized video games anyways? It's not like the players can feel what their convicts can feel, and games can't be started at any time of the day (they're televised) so how is a video game that you can pick up for cheaper, play at any time not strictly better? This is a tale that doesn't care about explaining anything or developing the world it's set in so it's really hard to care about anything that's going on. Stuff just happens so that we can have people kill each other.I'll give the movie this: if the objective was to make a game that feels like a deplorable video game, mission accomplished! The characters actually feel like video game personalities because your immediate impression of them is everything that defines them. The villain is very obviously evil (even though it's supposed to be a mystery) for example and he does that typical thing that every bad villain does in a bad action movie. I'm just saying that you would never see Mr. Glass from "Unbreakable" pick a fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger because one is a brainy villain, the other is an action hero... but that doesn't stop our Machiavellian sociopath! Kable isn't any better. He's set up as a killer but anyone with half a brain can see that this is once again, one of these movies where our anti-hero isn't an actual anti hero, he's just a good guy that's been misunderstood. Nearly every other character is totally disposable, and not the least bit memorable. Unless they're a woman because those are all killed or sexually exploited by the time the credits roll. Females in "Gamer" are more like props than actual people. I was actually really disturbed by some of the events in the film. Want a hint of some of the distasteful developments? How about I give you an easy one: there's a character called "Rick Rape" in the "tamer" Society game! There are a few scenes that have good action segments and there are a couple of laughs here and there but there's no real audience for this movie. You would think that this action film would be made to cater to video game enthusiasts, but they're all portrayed as unlikeable sexual deviants that would willingly sexually assault or murder human beings for kicks. "Gamer" goes out of its way to show how horrible it is to get entertainment out of seeing human beings being killed, so people who revel in violence and gore (fans of action or horror movies) won't get much entertainment out of this lecture either. There's no need to see this when there are actual good movies based on the same concept easily available. I came to thoroughly hate "Gamer". (Dvd, July 14, 2012)

In the future, rich and powerful Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) creates a gaming environment where gamers can use real people as avatars. Eventually, he would use death row inmates in a fight to the death game called 'Slayer'. Kable (Gerard Butler) is one of those death row avatars who scrambles to gain his freedom.This is an aggressively ugly viewing experience. Everything is in-your-face. The computer interactions are in-your-face. The people are ugly in-your-face. The CGI and the flashing cuts are so distracting that the story is but a sideshow. While I want to see the premise play out, it is too tiring to maintain my interest. The idea of using real people as avatars is actually very fascinating. I just can't deal with all the bells and whistles.

This film mixes Running Man with Death Race to come up with a fast paced entertaining flick. The director makes some solid statements about the world we live by using color contrast of black and white in the real world and bright colors for that of the gaming world to signify our perspectives on different subject matters. Some may fine some of the aspects of the plot hard to accept. What is nice, is the movie acknowledges this point and only brings it up in a few places. Other than that the focus is completely on the characters as they make their way through the movie.The acting is spot on. While it would be easy to focus on the high end tech of this future world, this movie maintains the importance of the humans and their interaction with each other. When Simon is on his computer we are all wowed by his layout, but during those interactions our focus is on Simon and not the fancy toys he has.This is a great first movie for a man's movie night. Throw the pizza box on the table, crack open a soda, and put some chips,dip, and popcorn at hands length and enjoy.