Review: Gamer

Grade: B

Gamer is a sci-fi movie about a futuristic world where humans can control other humans in massive multi-player online gaming environments. A man, Ken Castle, has developed the technology that allows these games to happen. The two games are Society, a Sims like game where people can play whoever they want in any number of settings, and Slayer, a combat game that uses death row inmates as the "i-cons" in an all out battle to the finish line, if an inmate survives thirty rounds, they get set free. Kable is the best "i-con" in the game Slayers and is only three wins away from going home. As Kable gets closer to his freedom and a secret organization known as Humanz, that is against people controlling other people, continues to interfere with the games, Kable realizes that he is part of a bigger conspiracy and makes it his goal to hunt down the creator, Castle.

Gamer was a surprisingly good movie if you're into this type of futuristic sci-fi movie. It is also great if you are a gamer and play first person shooters and Sims. There are many references to gamer in game behavior. I liked the movie a lot because I couldn't help but think, as I watched all that happened, that this movie is exactly what would happen if someone created the technology to be able to control real people in gaming type environments. It would eventually get to the point (especially in our "reality TV" obsessed culture) where we are watching inmates kill other inmates in a gaming type environment, especially if a lot of the profit goes to funding the government and prison systems.

Gerard Butler (300, RocknRolla) plays Kable, an ex-soldier who is on death row for mysterious reasons. I really enjoy Butler in action movies and feel that he really excels in them, and he was excellent in this movie. Michael C. Hall (TV's Dexter) plays Ken Castle, the creator of the technology. Hall's character, Castle, is a very intriguing character, he's got a very big ego and is just plain weird sometimes. The best part, when Castle is in him house and he's surrounded by like fifteen inmates and they're all dancing around him while he sings a Frank Sinatra song, hilarious. The movie also features Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as the leader of the group Humanz, Kyra Sedgwick as a news reporter, Amber Valletta as Kable's wife and appearances by John Leguizamo, Alison Lohman, Milo Ventimiglia, Maggie Lawson, James Roday and Terry Crewes.

This movie was very enjoyable to me. There was only one aspect of it that really bothered me sometimes, the camera work. There where some scenes where the camera work was whipping around and was just plain chaotic, granted, it was just helping show the chaos of the gaming environment but it was too much at some points. If you like movies like Death Race and Crank, then you should like this movie. If you like to play video games like first person shooters and games like The Sims, then you will appreciate aspects of this movie. I can flat out admit, this movie is not for everyone, but I liked it a lot.