Gamer (2009)

directors: Mark Nevaldine and Brian Taylor

writers: Mark Nevaldine and Brian Taylor

starring: Gerald Butler, Michael C. Hall

genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

After seeing the trailer I was immediately confused. Seeing the first 10 minutes of the film I was lost. After 30 minutes I knew where I was but still after the end couldn't understand how these people thought I would enjoy this kind of world and the overblown stylistic filmmaking of the directing duo.

Here we are in the year 2034 where technology rules the land and videogames are right in you literally. Everone is fanatic over Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) games that have put the public on a game high with the games Socierty and his new Slayers. Everyone loves Slayers and the champion Kable (Gerald Butler). In this world it seems reason and thought dont even exist. Money, greed, ease for a better life and violence for entertainement is what the public feeds on. Not realizing that Castle gams are a form of slavery the rebel group Humanz led by Ludacris has a plan to save Kable and his family and find out the real reason behind Castle's power.

The main problem of this film is that it goes overboard. There are so many messages, ideas that you could layout with the material at hand. Instead the creators go with MTV style of directing and making us just take the extremetis we see on screen. The action isn’t bad. And after a while you start to like the characters. But that’s not enough. When your dealing with these themes you got to do better. Ill speak on the problem I have with the tech ideas. But I also have a problem with ethics in this film. How do they see as a future where people are taken as slaves. I mean countries don’t allow prostition to be legal but in matter of 20 years per say it will be completely legal not only protsitue the body but the mind. What no law, no backlash everything just so happened in this future. Right now im comlaining maybe in a way for nothing but I would have appreciated a back-story to the land. The Matrix gave us one even that crazy prison film with Cristopher Lambert played in gave us one but not Gamer.

I don’t understand why some people go overboard with tech of the future. Films like 6th Day or the new G.I. Joe film and Gamer have a terrible and overblown outlook on how technology will be in the future. Im not saying are futures are going to be peachy or a catastrophic tidal wave from everywhere and I now it’s just a sci-fi fantasy film. But why go overboard with tech that’s not in planning and that’s a little too far fetched that people would receive it that easily. I just don’t like the idea that in the future people are going to be that down in the dirt, pessimistic, nihilistic that they wont care about simple things. The film just takes some issues and tech that we have now and goes to a level that is just too much for me.

Gamer starts off slow but catches on once you get the feel of the weird environment and more in touch with the characters. As extreme as the film is the action is pretty good and the ideas are not bad. But it still makes out for pretty mediocre film and too their benefit is of higher quality than the director duo previous efforts in Crank 1 and 2.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul