To be fair, the trailer makes no pretense that the movie is anything more than watching someone else play a first-person shooter for an hour and a half. That’s the gimmick. Still, I went in hoping that there was more to it than just that one gimmick. Sadly, there wasn’t. After a title sequence consisting of brutal violence in extreme close-up, the movie opens much like a standard shooter would. The titular character wakes up, is given a briefing, and has various body parts activated.

Courtesy of STX Entertainment

From there, it’s an almost relentless assault of nonstop action, most of it graphic and fairly ridiculous, much like the video game genre it mimics. Unfortunately, the story is almost nonexistent. In fact, most actual first-person shooters have more story to them than this movie. Video games at least attempt to give you some reason to care about the character you’re controlling and the mission that needs to be accomplished. This movie not only fails to do both, it barely even tries. Continue reading →