“Gamer,” is the third film from directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, is an action packed hail of gunfire and good intentions. It is propagated by a heavy-handed theme, which threatens to outweigh all other aspects of the film.
“Gamer” is saturated with action, perpetual soft-core pornography, and engaging cinematography; it fulfills all of the basic credentials of an “R” rated film, as it shares with its audience a bounty of bullets and nudity in its own cinematic and aesthetically gritty manner.
The premise of “Gamer” revolves around a convict, Kable, who is sentenced to life and forced to engage in a fight for survival with fellow criminals in an attempt to gain freedom. The convicts control their actions while an immature, adolescent gamer controls Kable by using technology that allows people to control other humans through the Internet. “Gamer” takes an interesting, often pessimistic, view on the role of Internet networking communities, which are reduced to venues for violence and pornography; a haven for perverted consumers to hide behind the shield of an employed avatar, who must do anything the consumer wishes.
The nudity displayed in the film is used with the intent of showing how miserable the plight of these workers have become, not to glorify sexuality — but one could easily say that it is, nonetheless, grossly over the top. The decision should be left up to the viewer and if nudity upsets you, regardless of the attempted artistic purpose, the sheer amount of it in this film will offend you.
One of the many problems of “Gamer” is that the theme borders on being preachy and a few aspects of the film, predominately character development, suffer severely due to the directors’ exploration of the philosophical, political and moral implications of their ideas.
The major and unforgivable flaw of this film is the mismanagement of the supporting characters. Kable’s wife and the boy who controls Kable are both fascinating, yet they are shifted to the side to focus on a protagonist who lacks dimension. The film could have been much more than tolerable if the supporting characters had been given the proper screen time and development.
The characters are nothing more then one-dimensional archetypes. Kable must overcome countless obstacles to be reconnected with his family. The only reason this cliché story even comes close to tolerable is because the situation that Kable is placed in is more engaging then the majority of recent films. The supporting characters are equally as flat and as unappealing as Kable. Due to the bland characters, the plot and subplot do not seem to actually hold any substantial weight and this ultimately cripples the execution of the film’s overarching theme.
Although “Gamer” is solid in its adherence to the action formula and is filled with the necessary action it needs to keep one’s eyes from wandering, it still feels empty. If you merely want to watch things blow up and people get shot, this should be able to hold you over until “Crank III” comes out.
All negative criticism aside, the film flows well and is far from boring. It fulfills its basic end and is entertaining to watch. The actors offer engaging portrayals of poorly written characters and manage to breathe life into a film that needs it. Michael C. Hall brings a theatrical flair to his portrayal of the film’s villain, which makes him all the more fun to watch and hate. Two and a half stars.
