Social networking takes on a whole new meaning in the 2009 film Gamer, directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Imagine a virtual world like Second Life or the Sims, but instead of controlling computer generated avatar's you actually control people in real life. People pay to control a human avatar, and the avatars are paid to allow themselves to be controlled. Nanotechnology turns part of the actor's brain into a Wi-Fi receiver and the player gets to control them like a remote control toy. Of course, this becomes a huge hit and the inventor becomes a billionaire. Remote controlled parties, orgies, etc are the norm for the remote world "Society." A spawn off of that is a remote controlled TV show "Slayers" where inmates on death row are allowed to volunteer for a chance to win their freedom. They are remote controlled by teenage gamers (think Counter-Strike) and if they can survive 30 missions, they are released with a full pardon. The inmates are called...wait for it...."iCons." Very Apple like. This is the stage for Gamer.
With the explosion in popularity of games like Sims and social networking like Facebook, I can definitely see a huge market for people being willing to pay to control a human avatar. I can even see using convicted criminals to fight wars (though not as a TV show) to gain their freedom. Gamer gives a unique look at what might be possible. That is about all I can say good about the movie.
Starring Gerard Butler as Kable, the protagonist, and Michael Hall (Dexter) as the billionaire antagonist, Castle; Gamer certainly brought well-known actors to the leads. However, the acting was forced, the storyline lame and predictable. The combat sequences were laughable. They even included Crouch-Jumping in the combat scenes. For those of you who do not play first person shooting games, to clear hurdles in many games you have to jump and crouch in mid air. This results in a totally unrealistic looking motion where one tucks their legs up under them instead of one leg forward and one back, etc.
There are many sequences in the movie that just did not make much sense and added nothing to the storyline. The movie is a waste of time. Fortunately, it is only 95 minutes long, but that is still 80 minutes too long. Had the potential to be a neat movie, but instead it just sucked and never delivered. Do not waste your time. I give it a 2 / 10.
With the explosion in popularity of games like Sims and social networking like Facebook, I can definitely see a huge market for people being willing to pay to control a human avatar. I can even see using convicted criminals to fight wars (though not as a TV show) to gain their freedom. Gamer gives a unique look at what might be possible. That is about all I can say good about the movie.
Starring Gerard Butler as Kable, the protagonist, and Michael Hall (Dexter) as the billionaire antagonist, Castle; Gamer certainly brought well-known actors to the leads. However, the acting was forced, the storyline lame and predictable. The combat sequences were laughable. They even included Crouch-Jumping in the combat scenes. For those of you who do not play first person shooting games, to clear hurdles in many games you have to jump and crouch in mid air. This results in a totally unrealistic looking motion where one tucks their legs up under them instead of one leg forward and one back, etc.
There are many sequences in the movie that just did not make much sense and added nothing to the storyline. The movie is a waste of time. Fortunately, it is only 95 minutes long, but that is still 80 minutes too long. Had the potential to be a neat movie, but instead it just sucked and never delivered. Do not waste your time. I give it a 2 / 10.
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