Gerard Butler is right - his 2009 sci-fi action film Gamer was genius. While doing press for his movie Copshop, Butler was asked about the recent success of Free Guy and the film's similarities to Butler's own 2009 video-game-based flick. The actor revealed that he doesn't watch Ryan Reynolds' movies, but he also shared his thoughts on Gamer and its failure to capture an appreciative audience compared to Free Guy's box office success.
Gamer tells the story of a future in which video games allow humans to control other humans as "characters." Butler stars as Kable, a death row inmate controlled by a 17-year-old boy named Simon (Logan Lerman) as part of a first-person shooter game called Slayers, in which real prisoners are used to fighting in a series of deathmatches in hopes of winning their freedom. The film explores the dangerous relationship humanity has with technology in a way that was seemingly ahead of its time, but it wasn't overly well-received by critics. However, it found a cult following with fans of sci-fi action, and Butler's performance as Kable was generally praised.
It's not often considered one of director Brian Taylor's best films, but there's a subtle intelligence to the film that's all too easy to miss. Butler's recent comments outline that he believed Gamer was "genius" and that "people didn't get it at the time," and he's not wrong. Critics' main issues with Gamer were its direction and script. While its plot was underappreciated at the time, it remains both entertaining and insightful over a decade after its release.
The genius that Butler referred to was hidden under several layers of action and thinly-veiled allegory, but it's undoubtedly there. Gamer taps into a part of the human condition that isn't often addressed so bluntly - the constant and often seedy desire for control over others. Watching a world in which the wealthy and powerful can literally force others to do whatever they want panders to that morbid fascination. Still, it also does its best to ask its audience just how that could ever be acceptable.
Gamer might not feature groundbreaking action or science fiction, but it's criminally underappreciated. Its action is remarkably grounded, particularly given the story's sci-fi premise, but the film refuses to rest on its laurels. Instead, Gamer does its best to tell a cautionary tale of technological advancement and of humanity's desire for easy entertainment getting in the way of reality. All of that is on the surface, but when digging deeper, there's an extra element of truth in Gamer's story. In its world, people hide behind their avatars, often living their entire lives as part of their games, which again mirrors modern society.
While this might sound lifted from what made Ready Player One a success, Gamer uses real actors as the in-game avatars and even frames the experience from their perspective. It actually makes the in-game scenes more than a little unsettling, as it more than touches on the characters' loss of body autonomy, giving Gamer some vague horror vibes in the process. It may never have reached the heights that Gerard Butler believed it was capable of, but the star didn't seem all too upset about it. Not everyone appreciates just how intelligent Gamer really was, but there, again, Butler is right: it was just ahead of its time.