In the year 2034, mind control technology has taken society over, and a multi-player online game called Slayers allows video gamers to control human death row prisoners in matches to the death. Kable is one of these death row prisoners that is forced to join the violent competition, must free himself by taking out its evil creator, Ken Castle. Kable must also save his wife, Angie, who’s now a sex slave trapped in her own avatar world.
Gerard Butler is a good actor, after 300 which was a blast and showed real promise, there hasn’t been much in the offers for something meaty for him. John Leguizamo has a little role here which doesn’t do him justice, he’s a good actor that doesn’t get the right roles either. Ludacris is making his way out of the rap industry and into the more money making film industry so good for him. Zoe Bell has a small bit part which is nice. Terry Crews shows more of his villainous side than ever before. He’s probably got some good offers at being the next evil lead character after this one.
The big question won’t really be if the script was tight or the action was pulse pounding(it is when its there), but what if this is the kind of numb action movie that is the future of action cinema? On one hand the movie is meant to be brainless. No one can survive half of that trauma given. So its meant to be a movie for kids right? The future movie addicts right? Wrong. The movie is rated R for frenetic sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and language.
The directors are Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. These guys are 2 thirty something year olds making movies for potentially 17 to 25 year old males. Its interesting that they make movies for people they want, not even trying to capture more viewers outside of that persuasion.
This is actually the way that future filmmakers are going. There are too many genres and too many people with different tastes. There will be big distribution setups but the beast of moviemaking is evolving to a more specific route. Instead of an action/drama/comedy movie(Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour franchise) there will be more of a hierarchy than a collaboration of genres. Movies are detailed technical books played out on a stage with intricate camera movements. Movies are a collaborative effort of a directors vision when they read the fiction book(screenplay). The majority of fiction novels are one genre, either romance, or sci-fi, etc. Is this a bad thing you might be asking. It is not. All that is happening is that specialized fields will be produced and advertised to specific groups of purchasing communities.
Gamer will not be for everyone. If you like Crank, The Condemned, or Death Race, then it will be right up your alley.