A ridicules, well-done thriller. Wait . . . what?

Rating: 1/10 (3 December 2008)

The Game doesn't try to be anything except a standard, well-done thriller with an intelligent moral. In David Fincher's mind, that was all he was trying to accomplish. Did he do it? Well . . . I'm not sure I have a definitive opinion either way.
On a technical level, The Game certainly succeeds. David Fincher knows how to use a camera, and I'm not sure anyone, including the most negative reviews of this film, could say otherwise. The Game creates a flawlessly dark atmosphereliterally, but not so much figuratively. Instead of jumping on the wagon and trashing the viewer over the head with horror clichés as similar movies do, The Game slowly builds up to its over-the-top moments in an attempt to immense the viewer in reality before going into the unbelievable. If this movie were in the hands of any other director but Fincher, it would have been the single biggest cliché-fest in cinematic history because it wouldn't practice any subtly whatsoever. For example, the clown in the opening of the movie was fully grounded in The Game, but in any other movie would have just looked like a cliché prop. This is a credit I do have to give Fincher . . .
But it's also a credit I have to take back by the end of the movie. Simply put, I've seen a lot of unbelievable movies, and I usually vouch for them. "Unbelievable movies are rarely as unbelievable as real life," is something you'll always hear me say. Not so with The Game. At all. By the midway point, the level of ridicules things happening brought to me to the point of laughing. Though other reviews have taken the time to carefully label and point out every plot hole, there is one big one that few people are seeing. The people behind the game could not know every single move the main character would make to such a precise degree. Period. When you finally figure this out by the middle of the movie, the entire plot become worthless and very formulated.
The other major problem I had with The Game is it's absolutely nothing new or original in the least. Thriller writers have used this exact plot so many times it's second nature to the hardcore thriller fan, such as myself.
And when I say "rehash" I mean it in every way I can. The Game is so slow-paced and tedious, not to mention repetitious, I could honestly see people shouting "We get it, come on!" at the screen. Oh the irony: what is the point of a thriller if it isn't thrilling? Entertainment valuealongside originalityis almost a dead concept among modern directors, isn't it? They're so fixed on making sure their movies have some sort of cliché, pretentious social commentary they forget that watching a movie was once, dare I say it, a fun thing to do.
Don't get me wrong. When I say movies lack entertainment value, that doesn't mean I'm not all for movies that scar the viewer and show them something meaningful, but The Game isn't that either. The big moral point at the end is just another cliché in the pit of clichés The Game already was. We got it back with A Christmas Carrol and It's a Wonderful Lifewhy did we sit through this tedious movie just to hear old news? Excuse the overused pun, but in every aspect The Game loses. It leaves the viewer feeling like they were just cheated in the same way the main character was, but not in the meaningful way. More in a "I could have done the laundry in the time it took to watch that pointless movie!" kind of way.
1/10