Lamer Gamer (Gamer [2009] (DVD))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Gamer [2009] (DVD)
Date:	07/10/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A promising, action-packed concept

Disadvantages: Unbelievably boring, crass, stupid and full of half-baked ideas

You'd have thought computer games and films were made for each other: the strong visual style and non-stop action of games perfect for a piece of mindless Hollywood entertainment. Yet, it's the one genre La La Land has never really mastered. For every War Games, there are 5 Resident Evils; every Tron is outnumbered by 3 Super Mario Brothers. Now it's up to Gamer to turn the tide.

The plot looks like a promising high concept for lots of on-screen mayhem mixed with a smattering of social commentary. In the near future, there exists a game - Slayer - in which the competitors are real-life death row inmates (I-Cons), controlled by the game player. If a player can survive 30 consecutive battles, they earn their freedom. One man - Kable - is just 3 matches away from this total.

There are plenty of ways the writers could have gone with this script. They could have examined the logical conclusion of society's obsession with reality TV, explored ideas of power and control, or they could just have blown a lot of stuff up. Curiously, Gamer does none of these. Instead, it is turned into a dull tale of one man trying to break out of the game to free his family.

Gamer contains nothing new. It rips off pretty much anything and everything, but compares badly. There are echoes of The Matrix, Tron and many other films. Its closest relative is Schwarzenegger oldie The Running Man. And whilst that film might not have been the best in the world, it was at least fun to watch. Gamer, on the other hand is badly thought out and badly executed. There is no coherent plot and it sometimes feels like every half-baked idea that was considered at the script stage has been thrown in. This robs the film of any real identity or credibility and makes it all more than just a little bit stupid. At one point, the chief bad guy even does a little song and dance routine, and Kable, instead of killing him, stands and watches. I really wish was making that up, but I'm not.

The script simply feels directionless and without excitement. Some potentially interesting or exciting ideas are raised, but then more or less ignored. For example, there could have been a lot of tension from playing out Kable's last 3 games to freedom in real time. Instead, we barely see him inside the game, so this idea loses any impact. Or we could look at the developing relationship between gamer and I-Con to see how they need each other. That's barely touched. Or what about the sub-plot where a bad-ass killer comes into the game to stop Kable reaching 30 victories? That could be an interesting (if derivative) angle - two equally driven killers hunting each other across the gaming environment. Nope. Next time they meet, Kable pretty much kills him in around 10 seconds.

That Gamer didn't make much sense was a given. What surprised me was how boring it was. There was no excitement or atmosphere. The set-pieces were dull and generic (escape from buildings, gun battles with hired hands) and brought no sense of tension. There was never any sense of danger, any feeling that the bad guys might win, no edge-of-the-seat excitement. Even the odd bit of gratuitous flesh-flashing can't liven things up. Quite how the writers and directors have managed to conjure up such an insipid film from such a potentially action-filled concept is beyond me, but that's exactly what they've done.

Even the setting is dull. You'd have thought that at least the gaming environment would have had a strong visual style, but it looks as though it was filmed in Milton Keynes on a wet Tuesday evening. It's all dull concrete buildings and grey, multi-storey car parks. This gives the film a slightly cheap feel. It might have a multi-million dollar budget, but it feels like what you might get if Shane Meadows decided to do an action film... only not as good.

What makes it worse is that the directing is all jump-cuts, zoom shots and every other trendy camera effect which can be used by directors looking to try and hide the fact that their film isn't actually very good. I expected nothing less (it's from the guys who directed the equally hyper-active Crank series), but they've turned the dial up to 11 on this one. The camera barely stays still for the whole of the (too long) 95 minute running time. It becomes an assault on the senses, aimed at the attention deficient who can't concentrate on anything for more than 10 seconds. The net effect is to make Gamer virtually unwatchable. Even if you don't find yourself suffering from motion sickness when watching it, you won't have a clue what is going on.

The ironic thing is that this film is most likely to appeal to the 12-16 year old bracket... precisely the age group that is too young to (legally) watch a film with an 18 Certificate. So it's not violent enough to appeal to gore hounds, but too violent for under 18s, Gamer finds itself falling into a big hole, pleasing no-one.

At least there is no good acting wasted on this monstrosity. Gerard Butler stumbles through the on-screen mess, looking disinterested and mumbling his lines. The rest of the cast are a bunch of complete nobodies who bring nothing to the role - no charisma, no humour, no sense of danger. You know you're in trouble when the best performance comes from rapper Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges

The one bright spot is Michael C Hall who does turn in a promising performance as Slayer creator/madman Ken Castle. He manages to rise above this mess turning in a performance which avoids the usual gaming stereotypes (fat, geeky loners) and come across as charismatic and charming, but deadly and unhinged. Sure, playing a psycho might not be much of a stretch for the Dexter man, but at least he tries to inject some life into his character.

At the start of this year, I watched and reviewed The Spirit. In that review, I said if there was a worse film in 2009, I didn't want to see it. The Spirit just about retains that dubious title, but Gamer gives it a good run for its money.

Basic Information
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Gamer
2009
Directors: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Running time: approx. 95 minutes
Certificate: 18

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: Game over