This movie displays everything I hate about modern Hollywood... From the moment it begins absolutely everything you see or hear on screen is 100% determined by focus groups trying to please everyone paint by numbers style versus actual artistic ingenuity or originality. There's zero attempt to establish any sort of backstory for the characters, instead just shove a bunch of loud CGI down your throat right off the bat and familiar popular music as a cheap way to win over the general audience. Nothing surprises you at all. They got Reynold's copying Jim Carey's blissful cheerfulness from The Truman Show, the actor who plays his best friend just copies Kevin Hart verbatim because "Everyone likes Kevin Hart and he's in all the movies!" Even the main actress' performance sounds exactly like Ellen Page (now Elliot Page) from Inception. The video game world they created doesn't feel fun and surreal like it should, just seems like real life with a bunch of glowing "power-up" items and the occasional tank lurking about ala GTA. It can be pretty at times but mostly comes across hollow and heartless.
I have nothing against a good popcorn guilty pleasure flick but this sort of movie is the worst of both worlds; dumbed down plastic garbage with the appalling audacity to pass itself off as something ground-breaking . It does this with zero continuity as well. After 15 straight minutes of mind numbing CGI action scenes they have the audacity to preach some flat side plot about business integrity and innovation. On top of that way too much of the run time is dedicated to a generic rom-com style side plot which feels forced and distracts from the main premise which was completely non-existent to begin with.
I have nothing against a good popcorn guilty pleasure flick but this sort of movie is the worst of both worlds; dumbed down plastic garbage with the appalling audacity to pass itself off as something ground-breaking . It does this with zero continuity as well. After 15 straight minutes of mind numbing CGI action scenes they have the audacity to preach some flat side plot about business integrity and innovation. On top of that way too much of the run time is dedicated to a generic rom-com style side plot which feels forced and distracts from the main premise which was completely non-existent to begin with.