The latest from the team behind the insanely ludicrous Crank franchise gets lost up its own adrenalin rush.
With Crank, writers Neveldine and Taylor proved themselves as the new stars of brain-in-neutral hyperkinetic action, and Gamer certainly doesn’t lack in the crazed action stakes. Whip pans and super fast MTV edits are di rigueur here, and while it may upset viewers with motion sickness, there’s no denying it’s a hellava ride.
In among the epilepsy inducing visuals, there’s a paper thin plot with some grunting in place of thespianism, but to be honest, that isn’t really what we’re here for is it? Plot hole you could fly a MiG through mean this is never going to be a great movie –or even a really competent one, but it’s willingness to mess about with high concepts scores it bonus points.
It’s the bog standard future, and humanity is mainly occupied with playing two huge MMPORGS –‘Society’ a Sims-like experience with added S&M, and “Slayers” – Doom meets Halo. The twist on this being that actual people sign up to be avatars, controlled by online gamers who seem mainly interested in making all vaguely attractive women in the movie make out with each other.
By way of narrative, we’ve got Gerard Butler, hulking about as the improbably named Kable, a death row inmate plunged into the shoot ‘em up. Survive 30 games, and he’s a free man. When exactly the government agreed that training convicted killers to be even more effective before then releasing them back into society was a good idea is never touched on.
In between browsing through the music video edit kama sutra there are some nice stylistic touches here. The grim world of Slayers is matched to Death Row, all washed-out blue grays against a rusty, grimy post apocalypse background, while the Society game in particular is all scanty bikinis and overly loud psychedelia, giving it a weird, Saturday morning cartoon appeal. It’s actually a bit of a shame, because there’s production design on display that would go down a treat in a more rounded film.
Likewise, characterisation is notably absent, Butler et al gurning and shouting over explosions while somehow managing to avoid any and all emotional heft. A special nod does go to Michael C Hall though, who pulls off deliciously odious villainy with aplomb, and is seriously wasted as a result.
Were this an adaptation of an actual game, then it would work fine, it’s at least as good/bad as any Uwe Boll dross out there and as such should be treated as inoffensive SDVD trash. Unfortunately, the writing team has decided to shoehorn in a half thought out moral. Something or other to do with society’s over-reliance on technology I’m sure, but it’s a muddled mess that deflates what otherwise could have been a full-on ‘don’t-give-a-shit’ fun fest like Crank before it, but because of its pretensions to commentary, it simply highlights the offensive sexism and dull as dishwater leads.
Kitchen-sink filmmaking that falls short of target, if you must, wait for the DVD and consume 15 pints before opening.
