...Okay,
here's the final part of my review of this stupid movie. Here's to
hoping it ends soon.
One of the few glimpses of actual humanity in this film. The Humanz sure chose their name well. |
After
the reveal that Tillman had actually been controlled by Castle to commit first-degree murder, I was sure the movie didn't have more
for us. We're still at the Humanz headquarters, where Tillman's wife
Angie has her nanites hacked so that she doesn't receive commands
anymore. However, the Humanz leaders Brother and Dude realize that
Tillman has escaped the memory-reading room. He's found grieving in a
hallway by his wife, who has been cured from control. Though she's
still partly wearing her stupid, stupid, STUPID attire from Society.
(Seriously though, this made me realize that some alternate costumes
for video game characters would indeed look absolutely ridiculous on
real humans. ...Thanks, Gamer, for that deep thought.) Tillman asks
where their daughter is. They learn the answer thanks to the punk
girl... Here's the new plot twist: Tillman's daughter has been
adopted by Ken mother-flipping Castle, the insane man behind Society
and Slayers.
Simon
Silverton is released from prison but is still considered a cheater
by his ex-fans, while Ken Castle in his large complex waits for
Tillman, knowing full well that the ex-soldier is coming. Tillman
arrives at Castle's house (not a castle, oddly enough) and thinks he
sees his daughter, but it's actually a super-screen that pushes him
back. Tillman goes down a set of stairs, only to see Ken Castle
surrounded by men in the shadows. The billionaire starts snapping his
fingers... and dancing. Over “I've Got You under My Skin” (thanks
to this movie, this song has taken a lot of additional, creepy
significations). The men in the darkness are all revealed to be other
prisoners, who... start dancing along with him.
I knew C. Hall was hamming it up, but damn! A musical bit in a grim film like this? Whoever chose to add that had guts and wanted to show it. Or was just insane, I dunno. |
Did
we jump into another movie? Man, that would be so great. I'd see
Jailhouse Superstar anytime instead of this film, but I have the
feeling that this is just a break until more heavy stuff comes by. I
KNEW IT! During the “musical number”, while Tillman is
distracted, Castle's men run into the Humanz headquarters and shoot
Brother and Dude. And then the dancers start attacking Tillman in
good old fisticuffs. He's badly outnumbered but eventually gets the
upper hand... while the billionaire is still freaking singing. After
Tillman has won this fight, he follows Castle, who's got things to
show him.
Among
other things, Castle has also replaced most of his cells with
nanites, but obviously his aren't so that he can be controlled by
others... No, his nanites can send commands and, therefore, control
everyone who has the other kind of nanites. Ah, you magnificent
bastard! Castle just has to visualize and the person will do whatever
he commanded. He pushes it a step further by forcing Hackman – yes,
mister scary himself – into dancing as well. Because, you know, he
had to explain why he had all these dancers in the musical number.
And due to how these things work – they can just be inhaled and
they'll start taking over the brain (by the way, this makes no sense
on a biological level) – Castle could have all of mankind under his
control in no time.
Dude, this guy could have eben a final boss, and he got defeated real easily! I call bullcrap on this! Did they put nanites in him? We never ehard of that, he said he wasn't controlled by anyone! |
To
prove his control over everything, Castle sends Hackman towards
Tillman, but surprisingly, the black man doesn't put up much of a
fight. You heard right. The scariest villain in the film, mister
Juggernaut, defeated EASILY, because freaking Castle wanted to
demonstrate his control over him and over potentially everyone else
on the planet. Tillman offs Hackman by snapping his neck... twice...
(That doesn't make sense either!) and now the true battle can begin.
But there's only one problem...
Castle
also controls Tillman through his nanites. Therefore, Tillman cannot
attack him! In fact, Castle could very well imagine Tillman
mutilating himself and Tillman would do it! And yes, Castle has
control over Tillman because his hackers removed the free will
program from the nanites in the prisoner's head.
But,
surprise! The punk girl from the Humanz reactivates Simon Silverton's
control room, and airs the confrontation between Tillman and Castle
on all the main screens of the world. ...That's really exaggerated,
but there's been worse in this flick so far, so I'd buy it. Of
course, the billionaire reveals all about his plan, so his scheme
becomes known by everyone.
Darkest hour, everyone; Because of Castle, Tillman is about to kill the only two people he'd never ever kill. My God... |
Castle
forces Tillman to stab his own leg, and then gives him one Hell of a
beating; Tillman cannot react, Castle just won't let him, like it
happened for Hackman earlier! Clearly, Michael C. Hall is having a
blast playing the crazy eccentric billionaire, throughout the entire
film, but especially during this scene. But it gets worse. Castle
goes a step further by controlling Tillman into stabbing HIS OWN DAUGHTER AND THEN HIS WIFE, after those have been brought in the room.
...No, you've got to be kidding! No, Tillman, fight it off! You
can't, but try! Please try! Don't kill your young daughter! Please!
Castle! Tabarnak! Die already! The knife gets closer to
Tillman's daughter... Oh no...
In
another twist, Simon has regained control of Tillman, and as a result
now both he and Castle are fighting to manipulate the soldier!
Castle's hackers try to block the signal while letting out again that
he just has to imagine his commands to Tillman for the Slayer to
execute them. So Tillman has a bright idea. He suggests Castle
visualizes himself receiving the knife in the gut. The billionaire
cannot help himself from imagining it at that exact moment (just like
you start to breathe as soon as something tells you to breathe –
see? You just breathed!), and gets the knife exactly in the guts.
Yes! Simon controls Tillman to plunge the knife further, twist it,
make it as painful as possible for the monster, and finally the
billionaire falls dead. Yes! Even the people in the streets, watching
on the big screens, celebrate. Hm, after so many awful moments, such
a happy ending makes one feel real good. Tillman orders Castle's men
to set everyone free from all control, which they do. One even
congratulates Tillman, calling him Kable a final time. Last, we see
John Tillman, his wife Angie, and their daughter, driving away. The
end, or, as the film says it, Game Over.
Yes! Take that, you monster! I hate to sound like a violent maniac, but his death wasn't nearly satisfying enough. ...By saying this, I'm as awful as the people in the film. |
Let's go home now. You too, viewer, go home. And try not to remember this film, it's not worth remembering. |
THANKS
LORD, GOOD RIDDANCE. What a piece of crap. This film bombed and I
have no remorse in saying that I'm glad it did. For the fifty million
it cost to make, it only grossed forty worldwide, for all the time it
was in theaters. And we cannot blame the viewers. I suppose many
guessed, from the previews, that this wasn't going to be a fun ride.
Gamer's
biggest defect? One could say it is unfocused. But unfocused is not a
word strong enough. Let me list all the plot points in this movie
that would potentially make strong films by themselves. The list is
kind of long:
-A
falsely accused criminal is trying to enact revenge on the one who
manipulated him into murder;
-A
game called Society appears, thanks to which humans can control other
humans in a disgusting, lewd version of Second Life;
-A
game called Slayers appears, in which criminals sentenced to death
can be controlled by gamers and battle on war zones;
-A
millionnaire creates a type of microscopic robots that invade a
person's brain, which brings a lot of moral questions to the table;
-An
ex-soldier is fighting to retrieve his daughter, who was adopted by a
crazy billionaire;
-A
group of hackers uncovers a rich man's diabolical plans and tries to
take him down;
-A
prisoner becomes harassed by a more dangerous, psychotic serial
killer far stronger than him;
-In
a world where video games have gained immense popularity, an expert
gamer is struggling with fame and the pressure of constantly
performing well at this hobby of his;
-A
woman whose husband has been imprisoned is trying to get her daughter
back from the social services;
-And
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Also: The extreme rise of advertisement for extreme shows. |
This
movie runs for 95 minutes, with about 9 of them for the end credits.
You'd think in 86 minutes they'd put less in the film for the plot,
because there's enough in this to fill multiple films. As a result,
everything is rushed to an extreme, with B-, C-, D- and E-plots
alternating with the main story while trying to link to it at the
same time. The whole thing is then switching back and forth, making
the first half a cluttered mess during which the viewers struggle to
understand just what the Hell is going on. And it's all tied up by
rapid editing with some montages here and there, which will make you
sick. The slow moments are rare, most of them happening around the
third act, which provides only a bit of rest for the viewers. Not
enough for what it's worth, though. They could have lengthened this
film by another half hour and it would have been better. Or split it
in two films. Either way, there was too much for a single 95-minute
film, too much exposition, too much to show, too much to explain if
the director wanted that damn story to work. It does get together by
the third act, finally following a narrative that makes sense, but
even there most of the plots have a part in the climax, which means
way too many elements are put in at once. Side-plots are resolved
quickly, others only pass by for a quick reminder that they were
there.
Each time I see scenes from Society, a part of me dies inside. It IS wrong in all the possible ways. If that was the director's intention, sadly he has succeeded. Urgh... |
What
else will make you sick? That world pictured in the film. It feels
wrong in all possible ways. Nearly all the characters are either
jerks, assholes, self-titled brats, or downright disgusting. Even the
good guys, most of them are awful, even Tillman who, while fighting
to save all of mankind from becoming slaves to a crazy billionaire,
has no qualms about killing people, even when he isn't being
controlled by his gamer (example, the Society character who was killed when Tillman went to get Angie). Even the in-universe viewers, those watching Society or
Slayers, seem fine with seeing people getting pretty much dishonored
in Society, or seeing prisoners dying by the thousands in Slayers.
Yes, even the everyday people are awful in this world. The few parts
of light in this film with a depressingly dark undertone are Angie,
Tillman's wife, as well as his daughter and the members of the Humanz
(the main three, anyway: Brother. Dude and the punk girl). But the
biggest offender in this film is the portrayal of gamers. It doesn't
help that we see only two gamers consistently throughout, and one is
a rich brat with no back thoughts about killing off death-sentenced
prisoners, while the other is a disgusting obese man who basically
pushed his Society character into sex and, later, even got aroused by
two other Society characters getting killed. Although Simon redeems
himself by the end, his contribution to the climax is way too small.
Okay, he does cut off Castle's control in time to prevent Tillman
from killing his own daughter, so there's that. The quick glimpses we
get of other gamers either show them as obsessed, sex-craving, ugly
or just disturbing.
One of the only films to have both an avatar of "righteous" (sarcasm) violence and of insane violence. Doesn't make it good in any way. |
Now,
let's talk about the violence in this film! Does it carry an
anti-violence message? Really? Sorry, I couldn't notice it when it's
so god damn violent all the way through! Is it that violence in the
media is bad? That video games are bad? That violent video games are
bad? Either way, we get our fair share of murders and deaths through
the movie. So it's not exactly condemning violence if it has no
second thoughts in showing us lots of violence. This is hypocrisy in
film form. Don't even get me started on the constant, gratuitous
appearance of female attributes to titillate the male viewers!
The
acting is fine, I mean, Gerard Butler is doing a good job, and so
does Amber Valetta as Angie, who has to act like an emotionless puppet within Society. Same for Logan Lerman, who had to act
like the worst teenager there is. Michael C. Hall portrays a
despicable human being, and really tries to have fun by hamming it up
as much as possible. Ludacris is also doing okay. The only actor in
this that had nothing good is the young girl portraying Tillman's
daughter. She shows no emotion each time we see her, and her only
line of dialogue is said with so little expression that you'd think
she, too, was infected with the nanites. Considering her age, it can
be excused. (Plus, has anyone noticed that this young girl is the
only child in the entire film? Oh great, more unfortunate
implications...)
Holo-room: Awesome. Simon Silverton, not so much. It's a room-sized computer screen, mixing all sorts of ideas... But it's used by a jackass. |
But
about this film, I have to admit this. Some of the ideas are good on
paper. However, they're sunk down by the film's problem, the editing,
the over-abundance of plot elements and characters, and the violence.
As I said, many of these would make good movies by themselves, but
instead they're a part of this mess. Another interesting detail in
this movie is the futuristic technology, not necessarily the nanites
(considering their purpose), but other subtle appearances by the
holo-room used by Simon to control Tillman, and the memory viewer
used by the Humanz. Also, while the soundtrack is nothing special,
this cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” by Marilyn
Manson, which plays in the intro and in the third act, actually does
sound pretty good if you don't mind it defacing a famous song that
oddly fits the theme of Gamer. (Fun fact: I added it to my music
collection,. The only other Marilyn Manson song I own is his metal
remake of “This Is Halloween”. Though, ironically, “sweet
dreams” sure isn't what I'm gonna have thanks to this movie. Also,
even if I do find the song good, it cannot save this flick.)
Finally,
despite how awful this movie is, I think it does raise interesting
questions: In the human's quest for more entertainment, for better
entertainment, when are we going to go too far? When will it stop
being fun and games and turn into snuff? Most of all, will we realize
it once we've crossed that step? Through the years, numerous people
have turned their games into something horrifying, taking it beyond
the step that should have never been crossed. In this movie,
prisoners died by the thousands in Slayers while thousands of people
were controlled into doing awful things in Society. When did mankind
as a whole said, in the years before the events in the film, “ah,
screw it” and decided it would be entertaining to see people die or
suffer? Not characters, real people?
That's
probably the best questions we can get out of this movie, the only
serious questions to come out of this mess. This was Gamer, everyone.
I hate it. Hate so much about it. Hate way too much about it. I don't
want to see it ever again. I really don't recommend it. Watch it if
you want to see the awfulness by yourself, but I promise to you that
it will NOT be a fun viewing.
Sigh...
I'm done. I'm freed from the obligation to review this piece of crap
in its entirety. What do I do now? ...Wait. We're July 11th...
This blog was created On July 19th... Oh my God, we're a
week away from the first anniversary! What am I gonna do???
...
...Hell yeah!
No comments:
Post a Comment