The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: ‘Gamer’ Movie Review

Film — September 6, 2009 at 13:19 — 1 comment

Clark Kent says: ‘Gamer’ is a high-concept action thriller set in the not-so-distant future that is movie theaters NOW. Bridging the video game world and entertainment into a terrifying new hybrid where humans control humans is a creative notion thought up by the minds behind ‘Crank‘ & ‘Crank 2‘… but is it worth spend $14.50 for in the theaters? Read more after the jump.

GOOD: Gerard Butler stars as the video game superstar-slash-cult hero, Kable, of the ultraviolet “Slayers.” Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor do a great job of creating a frenetically paced film that has three distinct styles. The action-packed excitement of ‘Slayers’ and the PS3 Home-like experience of ‘Society’ mixed in with the real world aspect makes ‘Gamer’ pretty compelling. The plot finds Kable (Butler) the pawn of Michael C. Hall’s (Showtime’s ‘Dexter’) diabolical scheme to take over the world. ‘Gamer’ is NOT a boring movie by any means. Neveldine/Taylor pack a lot of wallop into this film which should excite teenage audiences.

BAD: Younger audiences may not remember those awful schtick movies like ‘Johnny Mnemonic‘ and ‘Virtuosity,’ but ‘Gamer’ is an incomprehensible mess. There may be an allegory about today’s Twitteration (Twitter generation), but it gets lost amidst the battle scenes that are shot all over the place. I was about three minutes late to the screening and still managed to miss out on the initial plot of ‘Gamer.’ While Butler’s Kable is full of violence and rage, his avatar Simon (played by Logan Lerman) is only briefly highlighted and is made only important during the battle scenes. You’re left wondering what the whole point of the movie is and as it gradually breaks down, you’re still scratching your head.

UGLY: The performances are wooden and if you’ve watched enough genre-bending movies you can manage to follow the dialogue and predict where the movie is headed. Specifically John Leguizamo (‘Righteous Kill’), Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (RockNRolla) and TNT’s own Kyra Sedgwick (‘The Closer’) have phoned-in performances. In the end, ‘Gamer’ isn’t ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ – it does give you enough thrills and blood-spills reminiscent of ‘Death Race‘ to warrant some attention. But the movie’s true message may be lost on those just looking for guns and explosions. Judge for yourself below: