Gamer 2009

Gamer 2009

Well, I have some interesting news for my friends. Well over a year ago when Gamer came out my friends all got together without me and watched it. Afterwords they told me about how much they liked it. I said that I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it after seeing the previews because the plot was entirely too obvious and it really seemed to offend them.  The mixed news is that I was wrong, and that I was also entirely right. It is a fun movie worth seeing if you like to shut your brain off and see some fast paced action making it much more entertaining than I predicted, but I did nail the plot almost exactly. The action comes at you non-stop throughout the film and the tricks used in the editing room that give this movie a choppy feel makes even the tender moments seem like they are flashing by at a high frame rate. This keeps the audience too drawn in to this thrill ride to see the glaring holes in the plot and the one dimensional caricatures that the majority of the cast portrays.

I also got into it with one of friends over Gerard Butler's acting talent. I still am not sold he is a good actor (The Bounty Hunter counts as serious evidence against his talents), but he did do well with the absolute pile of mule sized dookey that was the storyline and writing for Gamer. This is a story that has been done before in various ways from Death Race and its ilk to the 1994 flick No Escape (a popcorn show I always liked despite it having similar plot holes). It clearly draws a lot of storyline and ideas from the classic 1987 Arnie Sci-Fi action piece The Running Man. Just from the one preview I witnessed, many basic plot devices from The Running Man are clear and obvious. The grueling TV show and the modern arena where convicts fight for their freedom. The obviously 'good' protagonist being wrongly convicted and only joining the games because someone he cares about needs him. The inevitable escape and retribution against the creator of the games. The overblown social commentary. The only thing I got really wrong is that the 'player', Logan Lerman, that controls Butler's character Kable is not part of Kable's wholly foreseeable revenge pattern. In the only twist I didn't see, the smug teenage player turns out to be neither a particularly important part of the story nor an antagonist. 

Butler and Lerman were the only actors that got roles with real depth and they both created believable characters within a movie that actively tried to undermine their efforts. The campy, mono-dimensional characters played by the rest of the troop created a fun atmosphere that almost got me laughing at multiple parts, but the light hearted play (at one point a dance scene with Michael C. Hall and his 'puppets') runs contradictory to the jarring violence and moral weight of the scenes with Butler. The lack of seriousness throughout the supporting characters also made the dark atmosphere of a disturbing dystopian future into an oversimplified world similar to Idiocracy.  The cheesy cameo-fest includes some of the best current TV actors like Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Alison Lohman (Pasadena), Maggie Lawson and James Roday (Psych), and Sam Witwer (Being Human US Version). A few great supporting actors show up also such as John Leguizamo (Empire, Ice Age) and Terry Crews (Expendables, Idiocracy) plays a villain.  Also the film drags in Ludacris to fill the rapper cameo quota. They were all fun to watch and picking out the duo from Psych got a genuine chuckle out of me, but the cameos seemed forced. I would guess that they were all told to ham it up by the director so I can't really fault the actors, but generally it was bad sitcom TV level acting.

Which brings me around to the directing. It was directed and written by the duo Neveldine and Taylor who worked together as writer-directors on the two Crank movies and wrote the script for the doomed graphic novel film Jonah Hex. Like both Crank films, they capture a lot of great action in short fight scenes and keep a thrilling pace going from the opening to the credits. There are great music choices that keep the excitement upbeat and rarely does the audience have wait between action scenes. They are good action directors, but outside the action shot the film falls short. Since much of the film takes place in an altered reality state they chose to have frequent glitches or frame drops which look good, but feels totally out of place in a technologically advanced future. It is much closer to glitchy internet games from five or more years ago than a cool technical trick from the near future. The purpose of these graphical twitches is to make the altered reality scenes obvious, but they remind me of The Ring (2002) more than Halo. Much of the gore in the film is so over the top it takes on a Romero-esque quality. The story and characters were poorly written and without Butler or a similar ultra-popular action star this movie would be relegated to a cheesy B action/Sci-Fi movie that would seem more at home in the early 1990s with Johnny Mnemonic (1995). With Butler the action scenes and crazy fun pace cover up most of the bad points listed above, but the film still came off too light-hearted for the subject matter.

This film does take on some serious social commentary buried within the 90 some odd minutes of heart pumping action. It is set in a future where a recluse billionaire can buy out the prison system to create a computer game with human avatars. In the world people also play a Second Life style simulation game to act out their fantasies. Neveldine and Taylor decide to cast gamers in a very unfavorable light. The gamers shown in the film are creepy looking old men, a morbidly obese man on a powerscooter, and a rich white teenager all obsessed with sex and violence. I suppose stereotypes do frequently have a kernel of truth, but the directors seem to have actively tried to alienate and insult gamers despite the film blatantly ripping off gamer culture. It also had a great advertising campaign targeting gamers before its launch. Did they intend to alienate and offend their target audience? That would be like making a children's movie where all you show is kids from the special education room blowing snot bubbles and billing it as a movie about genius children made for genius children by a pair of genius children. If Hollywood's concept of gamers is overweight losers they must really dislike one of their core demographics. As a gamer myself I try to disprove these stereotypes by being social and hygienic and it offends me to see these stereotypes reinforced for the sake of a few chuckles. Those chuckles also undermine the films credibility for the social commentary it is obviously desperate to make.

This is violent gory entertainment that is a warning about how the stupid public loves violent gory television which, like its portrayal of gamers, condescends to its own audience. While I find large portions of the core concepts, stereotypes and ideas to be completely offensive, the execution of this fast paced dystopian action flick did entertain. I enjoyed my time watching it and think that anyone who liked Crank, The Running Man, or movies like The Fast and the Furious will get a great kick out of the non-stop action just like I did. While I doubt I could highly recommend this film to anyone, I would recommend it to people looking for some fast paced fun on a Friday night, just remember to check your brain at the door.

P.S.  - I think I just pissed off half of my friends with this reviews... To again placate them I was entertained! *Giant Sad Panda Face*  

P.P.S - After ranting to my roommate about the plot holes in the film, I feel I must also add "Sweet, kind, odorous butt stench" to my list of ways to insult things.