Review of the Movie Gamer, Which Was Far Too Unoriginal
Written: Oct 31 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Michael C. Hall, Butler is good in the role
Cons: unoriginal, no risks with script, weak ending, disjointed plot
The Bottom Line: Maybe die-hard Butler or Hall fans will enjoy this one, but it just doesn't hold value for many other movie fans.
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| three_ster's Full Review: Gamer |
Gamer seemed like it could be an interesting film, and I became more intrigued about seeing it when I found out that Michael C. Hall would be a main character. Hall has found a lot of fame from his lead role on Showtime's Dexter, and I have been a fan of his ever since the show started. Getting to see him on the big screen was a nice treat, and when he was on screen it was quite a fun experience. The problem though, was that he didn't receive enough screen time to make it worth seeing Gamer just for Hall. The bigger problem was that Gamer could quite possibly be the least original movie that I have seen in quite a long time. The movie actually made Speed 2 look like it was a brand new script, and that Aliens 3 should have actually been made in the first place.
The plot to this film boils down to a short few facts, the lead one being that in the future there is a computer technology that allows gamers to control convicts within a game setting. These convicts "volunteer" to play within this live action game with the risk that they could be killed and the reward that they could be let out of prison if they can survive long enough within the game. Very recently we have seen this story line in Death Race and before that we saw it in Running Man and numerous other films along the way. We are introduced to a main character (Gerard Butler) who has been put in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and he must fight for his right to first survive, and then take down the "game" that has uprooted his life in the first place. It all becomes too familiar about 10 minutes into the start of the film.
Gerard Butler is back in the type of roll that would be his bread and butter, and if his character type hadn't been forced to avenge himself through the entire film it could have turned out much better. Some viewers will get turned off by the fast moving camera work that is taken straight out of Saving Private Ryan and Cloverfield, and for those that do stick around, the transparent story will become all too obvious as soon as the plot is discovered. When you pay full price for a movie, you hope that it will turn out to be decent, and when it fails on all fronts it leaves nothing but frustration in its wake. This was the type of movie that would have a hard time finding an audience normally, and it depended on the good word of mouth that really never came. Many people may have even missed that it was actually in theaters.
Sometimes its hard to give a movie a horrible rating after you have invested two hours into watching it on the big screen, but Gamer was so disappointing that it didn't end up very hard for me to do this at all. Instead I am here to warn people about seeing this movie, and that it really will turn out to be a waste of time if you sit down to spend the time watching it. It isn't fulfilling at all, the plot points simply don't fit into place at all times, and there are so many weak characters in the story that it just ends up being a total failure as a film. If you really need to see Butler defeat some bad guys or for Hall to have some funny scenes, then I can almost understand wanting to see this one, but it lacks in so many departments that it just isn't worth the effort. This one is not recommended at all, and I hope films like it stop getting made.
Recommended:
No
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