Every year, there are about a dozen films that I generally look forward to.  The first such movie this year was Gran Torino.  The let-down on that one lasted quite a long while.  The next two that I looked forward to were Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek.  Both lived up to my expectations, however low they were, and Star Trek even surprised quite a bit.  So the overall feeling is rather evened out between the three.  Watchmen panned out similarly.  I appreciated it and thought well of the adaption, enough at least to rank it as an overall success.

There are a couple more films that I am anxious to see, but not many, and I won’t reveal them here.  The two most recent films that I have seen that I highly anticipated, are District 9 and Gamer.  I actually saw District 9 several weeks ago but have been reluctant to comment on it without thinking about it more.  The primary reason for this is that it is from such a different perspective than I am used to that I wasn’t sure how to take it.

District 9

District 9 is filmed in a documentary style narrative, which I very generally detest.  I do not think highly of it because it is a device that doesn’t usually serve the story.  At all.  And it is not done well in District 9, either.  It significantly detracts from the story.  Documentary style narrative screams amateur as it attempts to create depth of story, but it’s a facade.  It is like a really badly decorated faux rock building face.  Instead of employing this gawdy expositionary tactic, the author should take care to reveal the levels of story and backstory in a more subtle and fulfilling way.  This is strike one.

The weakly journalistic flow reveals that more than 20 years ago an alien race descended on Earth and more specifically, Johannesburg, South Africa.  The alien ship hovered ominously above the city for a long time before the humans took it upon themselves to cut it open.  When they did, they discovered many aliens, later derogatively known as “prawns”, who were somehow understood to belong to a labor class of their society.  Soon, a company, Multi-National United, was contracted to handle all alien affairs.  They did so with the interest of understanding alien weapons technology.  Of course, there weren’t really any regulations on how the aliens were tended.  As such, there were abuses galore and no one much cared.  That is, until the aliens spilled over into human society.  Then, there was an even bigger backlash.  The alien slums, dubbed District 9, had become overcrowded and MNU resolved to move them to camp several miles from Johannesburg.

Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlito Copley) led the expulsion with the help of private military force.  Wikus has a childish eager to please and elementary understanding of character and virtue.  He views the aliens in no different light than anyone else.  Without giving too much away, nothing really goes as planned.  Wikus has an accident that puts him at odds with the MNU and forces him to side with the aliens.  The problem is, he never really appreciates their perspective, not does he gain any better understanding of morality in general.  In short, his growth is confined to the mere centeredness of his ego.  Not even the thin, obvious allusion to slavery and civil rights that the movie display is enough to shake him out of himself.  There is simply no character growth; Wikus is still an immoral boob.  A slightly sympathetic, highly incompetent and selfish, immoral boob.

The movie is entirely dependent on character growth of its protagonist and it fails.  It has a decent idea and it fails to come to fruition.  How unfortunate.  I really tried to like and appreciate it, but the movie just doesn’t work.

Gamer

Gamer takes place in the near future.  It is a world where the most significant discovery is remote computer integration.  That is, tiny nano particles, “nanex”, implanted in the brain, takes over neural tissue and receives wireless signals in the brain that allow a remote person to take over the functionality of another.  It was initially developed to maintain the health of the brain through cellular replication and rejuvenation.  But it was of course exploited for use in the video gaming world.  The first major breakthrough by the developer, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), is a game called Society.  It is very similar to the Sims of this universe.  Society is a virtual world like the sims, but the avatars are actual people that are controlled through the nanex in the brain.  The actors can see what is going on, but they can do nothing about it as remote players manipulate them into mostly disgusting and reprehensible situations.

The next gaming breakthrough is a game called Slayers.  It is a live first-person shooter that uses death-row inmates as the avatars.  If they make it through all of the stages, they go free.  If not, they die.  Not one makes it through.  Kable (Gerard Butler) is the games greatest success and is on the verge of freedom.  His player, Simon (Logan Lerman) is also a celebrity for brilliantly maneuvering Kable through the courses.  Kable is intent on making it through to see his wife and daughter again.  Simon is content to win and achieve recognition.  There is a deeper game being played and it is soon revealed, but I won’t.

Gamer is a movie that plays perfectly to the mainstream cyber-punk cinematic traditions as seen in Blade Runner, Hackers, and The Matrix.  Its closest cousin is obviously The Running Man, which is likewise awesome.  Gerard Butler kicks all sorts of ass in this fast-paced cyber thrill ride.  The film won’t win any awards, is not that novel, but is definitely worth seeing.  There are smatterings of mind/body philosophy, but nothing that is explored unnecessarily.

Gamer will unfortunately not see much money or attention head its way.  Novelty is probably the big complaint, but at least it has likeable characters and a complete story worth telling.  Quirky and genuinely poignant moments fill in the rest of the space.  If you see this, see it in the theater where all proper action films ought to be seen.  If you like The Running Man, The 6th Day, or Blade Runner, you will like Gamer.