The movie was fairly good. Even though slayers should have been more defined, it did explain the basics of it (make it to the save point alive). The movie being "abstract" worked very well for everything besides the slayers sequences, but those were surprisingly short. Something that I thought they did very well though is showing how the user interacts with their character. In MMO's today, you have a-holes who will screw up other people's fun and during one of the society scenes, there is an example of this with the roller blading. Its made even more powerful by people laughing at other people 's injuries, disgracing of dead bodies, etc. because its the icons (avatars) getting abused, not the users.

From an academic standpoint, this movie is great since it shows off how sick and uncaring people can be when its not their bodies being abused or shot at.

Anyways, if you want to see this movie, I warn you that there it is rated R for good reasons. It made me think that they should separate the R-rating into R1 and R2 or R and RR. This is because many R movies are lite-R's (some swearing, some nudity, some blood, but nothing out-of-control so to speak) and many other R movies are heavy-R's (i.e. saw, many cheesy horror flicks, and this movie)

Sure it's cheesy bit damn good maybe cause Gerard Butler is awesome among other aspects! I remember seeing in the theater just wasn't reviewing back then either way appreciate it what it is. Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor created such a bizarre story that is so dark and fun to watch! I recently decided to rewatch Dexter with Michael C. Hall being masterful, oddly he's just as great in this. I've got you under my skin is so good too.

In the future, rich and powerful Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) creates a gaming environment where gamers can use real people as avatars. Eventually, he would use death row inmates in a fight to the death game called 'Slayer'. Kable (Gerard Butler) is one of those death row avatars who scrambles to gain his freedom.

This is an aggressively ugly viewing experience. Everything is in-your-face. The computer interactions are in-your-face. The people are ugly in-your-face. The CGI and the flashing cuts are so distracting that the story is but a sideshow. While I want to see the premise play out, it is too tiring to maintain my interest. The idea of using real people as avatars is actually very fascinating. I just can't deal with all the bells and whistles.