Gamer (2009)

Gamer
2009
Action
Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Ludacris

I rented Gamer not really expecting it to be a good movie at all. I just hoped it was a crazy action movie I could have some fun while watching. It couldn't even deliver in that sense. There were just too many problems that made it an unejoyable experience.

Netlfix summarized the plot like this:
It's 2034, and humans can control and kill each other in a large-scale online gaming world. But Kable (Gerard Butler), a wrongfully convicted soldier forced to join the violent competition, tries to free himself by taking out its evil architect, Ken (Michael C. Hall). While being controlled by a rich kid (Logan Lerman), Kable must also save his wife, Angie (Amber Valletta), who's trapped in her own avatar world.

My thoughts about Gamer and now presented in a handy Pros vs Cons format.

Pros
- Boobs.
There are quite a few pairs of exposed boobs in this movie, and I consider that a positive.
- Violence.
I don't know if I have ever seen a movie with so many people getting shot in the head that actually showed that. Now violence in itself is not a positive, but I appreciate the fact that they went for it and didn't censore themselves.
- Attempts at video game and internet humor.
Only the attempt to reach out to these groups with inside jokes, not the actual execution of the jokes.


Cons
- Makes no sense.
There are so many things about the plot of this movie that make absolutely no sense. I won't list them all so I will just talk about the main one. In the movie a criminal on death row is allowed to play in a real life video game, but their body is being controlled by some kid playing it like a video game. If the kid wins enough matches in the game, the prisoner goes free. Why would they release the prisoner off of death row because some random kid was good at a video game? It literally has nothing to do with the prisoner, it makes no sense. Like I said there are a BUNCH of things about the plot in this movie that make no sense at all, but I don't have the time or patience to try and remember and list them all.
- Barely anything is explained.
In addition to stuff shown that makes no sense there are a ton of things that are not explained at all. How do they pick who controls the convicts? Not explained at all. I have a feeling most things weren't explained because the writers had no idea how to explain them.
- The action scenes.
One thing I did expect out of this movie were fun action scenes, and it didn't deliver. The action scenes are directed so terribly it basically ruins any enjoyment I could have gotten out of them.
- Pointless song and dance number.
Yea, you read that right. And yes, it was pointless and made no sense.
- The execution of video game and internet jokes.
I like that they tried to make these inside jokes to the video game community but all of them were executed poorly. And most of them seemed like they were written up by a 12 year old.
- Trying to make a social statement.
I think this movie was trying to make a statement that technology controls too much of our life. But it was hard to really get that message when the movie was so bad.
- The directing and editing.
Basically see everything above in the Cons section to see what these guys did wrong.


All I wanted when I rented Gamer was to have a fun time watching Gerard Butler shooting guys, but it I couldn't even find enjoyment of it on that level. There are way too many things wrong about this movie to ever suggest someone should watch it.

1.5 out of 5 Stars
.