Nerd Mentality

MOVIE REVIEW: Gamer

Posted September 7th 2009 by Frankie Aguilar.

Every aspect of this movie has the feel of good ideas unrealized. The premise is almost cool. The camera work is almost perfect. But like Brandy says "almost doesn't count". Disjointed is a word that begins to scratch the surface of the maelstrom that is this Gamer. The beginning introduces characters and ideas that disappear halfway through the movie. The second half brings up psychological and societal issues that you would never expect in an action movie. Social critiques like these have become more commonplace, especially in reference to human dependence on entertainment, but in this films it feels hackneyed and unnecessary. Gerard Butler, who plays the main character Kable/John Tillman, starts this film as a stoic killing machine, and ends as a whiny savior of mankind. The wishy washy nature of this movie, a shaky story and some overwhelmingly generalized social commentary, make for a strange movie-going experience.

Gamer begins with all the video game style explosions and camera angles you'd expect. The action sequences switch between a standard First Person Shooter view, and a shaky third person camera. Along with some stylistic video tricks used to simulate lag, the beginning sequence seems like a demo trailer for Slayers, the movie's fictional game. These little nods to gaming culture are sprinkled throughout the movie. They come in the form of aesthetic special effects, gaming specific dialogue, and most specifically: the setting of the movie itself. Gamer takes place in the year 2034, in a nondescript city whose attention and livelihood seems to depend on the Slayer game. The city is drab and colorless like the setting of many first person shooter games. Slayers is an online FPS that allows players to take total control of a death row inmate. The player sees what the inmate sees, and the inmate does whatever the player commands him to do. Butler's character Kable is the best Slayer in the game, and is three victorious rounds away from being released from his death row sentence.



Another game in this film is Society, a precursor in both technology and time line to Slayers. Much in the way that Slayers allows people to take over inmates in an action setting, Society allows people to take control of "actors" for whatever purpose they please. These "actors" tend to be people who have generally fallen on tough times and the only job they can find is being an avatar for another person to control. Kable's wife is a character in Society and rescuing her is his prime motivation throughout the movie.

The depravity carried out by people in Society and the brutality in Slayers illuminates the underlying motif to this movie. It uses these games as vehicles to shine a light on all the iniquity that is perceived of gaming culture. A picture of players as lewd, sex-craved malcontents that spend all their time online watching porn and getting fat is propagated throughout Gamer. The city in which this movie takes place is filled with debauchery slathered over a plain cityscape and the people that live there seem only to exist to watch and participate in these two worlds.

I find myself attempting to justify all the bad acting in this movie. I can imagine the pitch meeting for this movie: producers getting together and realizing that video game movie adaptations categorically bomb, and trying to find a new way to exploit the genre. So why not have a movie about a revolutionary style of playing that almost every gamer has fantasized about? And why not put a bunch of recognizable actors in it and tons of explosions? I'd imagine that the last thing they thought about was the story. The poor writing is evident throughout the movie. Butler really doesn't have that many lines, and when he does speak it is in short whiny sentences that don't match his character. On the other end of the spectrum is Ken Castle (Micheal C. Hall), the mastermind behind Slayers and Society. Castle comes across as a mix between Doctor Evil and Foghorn Leghorn, and that's not anywhere near as cool as it sounds.

Another issue I have with the script in this movie is the introduction of characters that are used so sparingly that it seems like they were put in as an afterthought. A group of rogue programmers calling themselves the Humanz are used as a deus ex machina to break Kable out of jail so he can free his wife and take down Castle. I don't even know if the Humanz are given names, and if they are they're probably only said once. This group, along with four or five more characters, are really just the grease for the big gears that are Butler and Hall in this movie. These characters' appearance and almost evanescent disappearance from the story are just a few of the numerous "huh?" moments in Gamer.

At one point Kable imbibes an entire bottle of vodka before a Slayer match, and fuels a vehicle with his alcohol-filled urine and vomit. The collective exasperation and groans in the theater only worsened as the movie trudged on. There's even a dance scene during the climax that will remind you of the terrible dance sequence from Spider-Man 3. I don't understand the motive behind these moments. Are they meant to be inside jokes to gamers, or are they supposed impress upon the general public how different their culture is? Either way I feel like the movie fails in both attempts. Gamer is bogged down by striving to simultaneously champion and degrade gaming culture.

There aren't many redeeming attributes to this movie. The action portions are well executed at times, but end up ridiculous before they're done. During the first on-screen battle a nameless player "tea bags" a corpse. At another point in the movie, a Guard attempts to explain what lag is to Kable. These attempts at shout outs to gamers are forced and moronic, and some end up being more offensive than funny. This isn't a movie I'd recommend, not even as something you have to see to appreciate how terrible it is. I'd be pressed to recommend seeing it in any fashion. I can almost commend the attempt at a different take on video games in movies. Almost.

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Tags: gamer

Posted in: Entertainment, Reviews

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