When I first heard of the premise for Gamer, it almost resulted in an instant facepalm. It seemed like Running Man meets Matrix meets a bunch of bad ideas. Throw a role to a token rapper (in this case Cris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) and you’ve got another cheesy, hot off the press generic actioner…..right? At least that is what I thought initially. Now that I decided to bite the bullet and watch the movie, I must say that now I am a believer. Gamer is actually a solid film.
The premise behind Gamer is that in the near future, humans can exert mind control over other humans. The catch is that this whole process is voluntary, or at least it is supposed to be. Multiplayer Online Role Playing games are being played utilizing real people called “actors.” Actors undergo treatment to have their minds altered in ordered for them to be controlled. They then rent themselves out to an anonymous user who pays a fee to contol the actor as their in game avatar. The first game, titled “Society” is like a SIMS using real people. Its success led to the release of another game called “Slayers” in which the avatars are player controlled, death row inmates who are pit against one another with the hopes of being released after surviving their 30th match. There are a few more layers to this story, but that is pretty much the gist of it all.
The film was directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the same guys responsible for the Crank movies with Jason Statham. Gamer show a bit of an improvement in their style. the camera and cuts are not as sporadic and seizure inducing as they were in the Crank films. There are just enough snappy edits to give the film a real ‘digital’ feel. You get the impression that you are receiving a feed of the movie and that helps with the immersion factor as it plays in perfectly to this world themed on connectivity.
Gerard Butler gives a solid portrayal of death row inmate Kable Killer. Watching Butler, you really get the impression that this guy is a lethal killing machine as he dispatches with wave after wave of enemies..like he was in a videogame almost! Michael C. Hall is decent as Castle, the main villain responsible for creating this mind control system. The film also features an appearance by the awesome Terry Crews, who many will recognize from White Chicks, The Longest Yard, and a number of other comedies. It is good to see him in a physical role like this as he is obviously built like a linebacker and just looks vicious. Sadly, his role here is a bit wasted as I thought his character had so much more potential in this film. There are other actors in this movie, but the film never really stops to focus on them at all. Besides that, there really isn’t much acting going on, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in movies like this.
Gamer is a really good film, but not great. It doesn’t break into any new territory that we haven’t seen before, but it is worth watching for its stylized brutality alone. Action fans who aren’t looking to get too deep into a movie’s plot will surely like this film. Overall this movie is well worth renting as it should keep you entertained for its entire hour running time.
