The Game Is up There, but Not #1

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2015)

David Fincher's movies Fight Club and Se7en were two of the most badass, plot-twisty movies I've ever seen. This gave me high expectations for The Game. I wasn't disappointed, but took a few issues with the movie.
This movie has the same great camera work seen in Fincher's other movies. I noticed a few small issues with sound mixing/editing. Let the fact that I don't know the difference between mixing and editing say that it's not much of a problem. Still, if I see a guy jump over a wall, I want to hear a thudding noise when he lands. It's a blockbuster, come on.
Nicholas, the main character, is a selfish bastard at the beginning. We could have seen anyone in the world sign up for the game, but it's a banker. A rich guy. One of the proverbial one-percent-pigs. Understanding his back-story and father's suicide already makes Nicholas more of a real person, but he does actually change over the course of the film. It's not exactly bad-guy-to-nice-guy, but it's a believable change, considering what happens to him and a good choice of a character to put in "the game."
Having seen Fincher's other work, I expected a huge plot twist kind of ending. There are plot twists and reveals. A plot twist is when the whole film changes course (in a way that fits) at/close to the end. A reveal, which is expected from the start, is when the big mystery is solved. I expected a plot twist when a reveal is what I should have been waiting for. You can't predict a plot twist. Other than the fact that it was a reveal, I didn't personally care for the ending. It was not a bad ending. It was a solid ending. Everything concluded in the way it needed to, but I couldn't help thinking, "that's not how I would have done it."
The Game isn't Fincher's best movie, but it's not bad. That being said, I liked it much more than an "eh, wasn't bad." The Game follows Michael Douglas as a selfish banker who signs up for an ambiguous entertainment service. The movie does a great job making the audience question the reality of each event. Is it the game or not? Though I didn't really like the direction the ending took, I can't say it was a bad ending. The Game gets a 7.5 from me.