Gamer: BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Lionsgate / 2009 / 95 Minutes / Rated R / Street Date: January 19, 2010
Kable (Gerard Butler of 300) is a condemned criminal and globally famous super-soldier in the ultimate multiplayer game, “Slayers.” Human controllers direct each thought and move of real-life prison inmates battling in hyper-intense environments – where the goal is freedom and the penalty is death. But when Kable suddenly decides he wants out, his rebellion threatens the twisted plans of the game creator Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall of TV’s Dexter), who will stop at nothing to crush the renegade commando.
Hot off the heels of successfully directing Jason Stratham (Transporter) in Crank and Crank: High Voltage, the directing duo of “Neveldine/Taylor,” or Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote and directed this notable gaming hit film. The pair is certainly adept at crafting confident urgency with convincing productions and not an overwhelming use of CGI (“we couldn’t afford too much CGI”).
And their slick casting of the affecting, A-list actor Gerard Butler, and Michael C. Hall as the villain with a God-complex, and wanna-punch-his-smart-ass-face-in-prick Logan Lerman as the talented user of Kable, Simon, all head up a strong roster of actors. Solid production values and locations that feel authentic, keen cinematography by Ekkehart Pollack and fine editors (considering the target market’s visual tastes) Peter Amundson and Fernando Villena support the men’s vision. The film feels very well realized for what it wants to be. But does it work?
Despite gauging reviews, I think the film is ok – you really get what you expect. Yes, characters are thinly drawn, but the three-act plot ain’t bad. It kept my attention throughout, and when Kable inevitably escapes, the plot gets more interesting. The ideas of biologically taking over a person’s brain through copy-like corporate cells is an interesting idea in conjunction with SIMS play, even if this set up is a little too quick and easy. I did admire the humanity the filmmakers gave to the agonizing prisoners caught into the system, in fact, that drew out the most empathy from me. And the film certainly delivers to the hard-edge gamers out there that like violent fighting, female nudity (and lesbianism) and gore, because the film has lots of it, though the extremes are brief.
Sure, a laundry list of questions began adding up in my brain, but…eh. With a movie like this, I don’t mind a few things (ok, more than a few things) to just fly over my head regarding some plot issues. But seriously missed hurdles are characters with the depth of dental floss; except for a bit on Kable’s wife, we are clueless on all characters’ back-stories. Along those lines, the most difficult issue to swallow is Kable. Despite Gerard Butler’s screen time, charisma and kick ass fighting, we really don’t know this man, except that he wants to escape back to his wife and daughter. Ultimately, to make the movie more involving, Neveldine/Taylor should have led us to know Kable more or more dimensions of himself.
In a one-eighty, this will sound weird, but after watching the supplements with the directors, either of Neveldine or Taylor would have been a better Kable than Butler, who was terrific. Each of these directors exhibit adrenaline-like intensity with severe, military stud faces and …on screen they just come off perfectly for this kind of role, especially Taylor. Each resembles a military game warrior. Of course, they wrote the whole thing, so that may be why I have this inclination, not to mention Butler could open a film like this to decent box office receipts from his name recognition, and they couldn’t exactly (…or maybe…?).
The film is probably not as good as it could have been, and some other wretched reviews may have merit, but it worked so hard, so I parked my brain and enjoyed a few new ideas and a lot of the kick ass nature of it. Then again, if this crazy world goes in the direction of Gamer with it’s subversive, putrid apathy towards others, I’m stocking up on ammo and running for the hills to live like Grizzly Adams.
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