Gamebox 1.0 Review

SPOILER WARNING: All film reviews spoil something, so be forewarned.

Gamebox 1.0 attempts to move films about videogames away from reinterpreting specific titles, like Bloodrayne, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil. Instead it speaks to videogames as a whole and the fragile separation of fantasy from reality. This is a similar theme in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, but Gamebox 1.0 differs in that it takes itself far less seriously.

The film unfortunately suffers from a split personality, it is written like a scholastic novel for young adults, but many parents will be turned off by its adult themes.

Gamebox 1.0 tells the story of Charlie Nash (played by Sabrina the Teenage Witch's Nate Richert), a lonely videogame tester trying to cope with the loss of his girlfriend Kate (Danielle Fishel). When Charlie receives a new virtual reality game system his adventures begin as he quickly realizes that death in the game might mean death in the real-world. The story is complicated as he meets Princess, a woman who looks identical to Kate in the game, and starts to confuse the game world with the real one.

The virtual reality game that Charlie spends most of the film in is based on three games, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, and a generic sci-fi shooter. When Charlie is in the games, they look like a blend of 3D games and full motion video, similar to the effect used in the cutscenes in Need for Speed Carbon.

Watching Charlie interact with the game world and standard gaming conventions, inventory, health, power-ups and the like, is fun, but eventually the characters have to speak, and things slowly creep downhill.

Gamebox 1.0 feels similar to a watered down eXistenZ. Gamebox seems concerned with the subtleties of reality and fantasy, but without the existential philosophy that eXistenZ uses as a vehicle to discuss it. It plays out like a Scholastic book turned into a movie, but with more drug references and shooting.

While the adult themes are mild enough to earn Gamebox 1.0 a PG-13 rating, it still may be a bit much for some parents to expose their children to. It's a shame, as I could see an edited version of Gamebox 1.0 being a hit with the tweeners.

As it stands, Gamebox 1.0 is a movie caught between two worlds, children's film and serious cinema. While it may not be the tension it desired to explore, it may find an audience with people caught in the "in-between" space between teens and adults.

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