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jan-lissens
Reviews
WarGames: The Dead Code (2008)
Do not read comments but see this film. It's brilliant !!!!
With all the negative comments, I almost did not see this film. I will not go into the sordid details on how I got to see this before the DVD release, but I went and pre-ordered it before doing this review and already reserved a special place for it, right next to the first one.
Without spoiling anything, let me say that I think this movie was absolutely brilliant. So, it's got a UAV that can fire bombs. So, the plot may not be worthy of a Shakespeare play. In my opinion, this type of movie is all about entertaining the audience. As as far as this audience is concerned, it succeeded with a bullet (or with a thermonuclear missile).
I always adored the original Wargames, and this was a true sequel. I was a teenager went it came out and a computer geek - two abilities I lost over the years - and that movie was absolute fun. This one rehashes the basic premise of the first movie, but in a new and modern way and added some 'Enemy of the State' like surveillance and pursuit. Some people may find it lacking in realism, but it was believable enough. It posed the same question: What are the risks of letting computers decide things on their own, but without the pervading sense of doom that this thought had during the eighties.
The action was fast paced, visual effects were good, the characters were as good as they needed to be.
And especially: the closing line of the movie in the epilogue scene gave the film the most satisfying end I have seen in years. I cannot wait until the DVD comes out and I can watch it again (and again) The only thing that felt somewhat ludicrous was the premise of identifying potential or actual terrorists by the way they play an online game, but if you just go with it it makes a little bit of sense...sort of. It sure didn't prevent me from enjoying it.
Basically, I haven't enjoyed a sequel movie as much as this in ages. And if you haven't seen the original, you'll still like this, if you want a movie that is entertaining, exciting and plain simply fun. If you only enjoy deep characters and complicated plots, chances are you may not.
WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS We get to see some familiar characters, there is some incredibly lines (like the computer wishing Will a good game with "Good hunting, Will!") WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD The Joshua sequences were great. The taglines of the original movie "Greetings, Professor Falken" and "An interesting game...the only winning move is not to play" were there. Both of them rank way up there with "Good Morning, Dave" and "Hasta La Vista, Baby".
I wonder if they used the original WOPR prop? Note the interesting differences in styling between Eighties supercomputers and 21st century supercomputers.
The confrontation between R.i.p.l.e.y (Alien, anyone) and Joshua was great, and I was glad to see Tic Tac Toe was still in there.
Anyway, don't read this review. Just have a look at the film yourselves and enjoy it. Me, I just may go back to using "Greetings, Professor Falken" as my PC's startup sequence again. Or perhaps "That was humor...ha...ha...ha...ha..."