Gamer

Justin and I saw Gamer last night, and it wasn’t what either of us thought it would be. If you’re thinking of seeing it, this review is spoiler-free, and worth looking at before you hand over your ten bucks.

The main problem was that I was in the mood for a mindless action movie, but that’s not exactly what Gamer was. There’s plenty of action, but it’s got a lot of psychological sub-themes having to do with control of other people and the whole gamer psyche. The filmography is also jerky and designed to make you feel uncomfortable the whole time.

The action parts are well-executed, which is probably why that’s all you see in the previews. The rest of it comes out as idealistic film-school-student psychological mush, even though some of the ideas explored could be interesting if they unfolded more slowly and deliberately.

The film had a great cast, but none of the characters were developed, even though they could have been interesting if further explored. Overall, the movie had too broad a scope for film, and came off feeling rushed and unpolished as a result. It would have made a better TV series.