Beta Test is out in theaters on July 22nd. We have an early review.
Imagine
going through your daily life. You wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, have
lunch, work some more, and go home. You
watch the same bland television shows over and over looking for meaning. Over
and over again this happens. It feels
hollow and not real. You don’t feel like you are in control of your destiny. It
feels like somebody else has taken control of your life and you don’t know what
to do about it. It feels like your life is a game. That
feeling is the subject matter and plot of the film Beta Test.
Beta Test
is the action packed story of championship gamer Max Troy (Larenz Tate). Max is
a twenty something living in Seattle who lives his life electronically and
never leaves the house (he reminds me a little too much of myself). Max is one
of the first people to play test a brand new video game for a company known as
Sentinel. The lines between reality and
the video game start to blur when events in the game start happening in the
real world. It is up to Max and the protagonist
of the game and ex-Sentinel employee, Orson Creed (Manu Bennet) to unravel the potentially
deadily conspiracy before the game's sinister plot overwhelms the city and
hurts the people they love. Corporate conspiracy, technology, and action all collide
together to make a film that makes us think about the games we play and how
real life intersects with these.
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| That's right. I never age. Deal with it. |
The
performances in this film are solid which is what you need for an action film
like this. Not only does Manu Bennet look like a video game character, he does
a good job with the action required by a plot like this. Bennet is born to be
an action star and does a great job kicking ass and taking names. He is a lot
of fun to watch on screen and manages to bring some depth to his character. Larenz
Tate does a good job playing a character that is relatable to the audience. Max
is just some dude who is brought into the middle of all of this crazy
conspiracy action and he does a good job of portraying what that would
realistically be like for a human being. The villains in this movie are good
enough for you to want to root for Orson and Max to defeat and that is all they
need to be. They are perfectly serviceable.
In style, Beta Test is an interesting film. On the
surface, it’s plot sounds like that of the films The Matrix or Gamer. While
this somewhat true, I think there is a better comparison in feel and style for
this film. This film feels and sounds like a throwback to the science fiction
based action films of the 80’s and 90’s. My mind kept going to the films of
action auteur Paul Verhoeven, specifically Robocop and Total Recall with how it
combined the media and the gritty violence of the world those films were set
in. The corporate conspiracy based action films centered around two characters
who have managed to get themselves involved into something that is bigger than
either of them and has to find a way to stop them. It opens with a gritty montage opening
credits of a world falling apart with a pulsating synth score playing behind
it. This score recurs through out the
movie and does a good job of adding to the style and tone of this movie. As a
viewer, I appreciated returning to the style of action movie that we don’t see
a lot of anymore. I also appreciated the
way they would cutback to what was happening from the perspective of the video
game and the real world. It added to the realism and feel of the game that we
see what it looks like to Max.
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| My sword is bigger than your sword.
My biggest
problem with this film is that it doesn’t have the bite of the film’s the
director appears to be going for. The message becomes lost in the action and
plot development towards the second half of the film. It becomes so focused on
action that it loses track of what could be a potentially interesting message
about the blurring of reality and video game violence. It’s possible to do both
folks and it’s a shame because with more money and a more experienced director,
this could be a real action classic. It does show a lot of potential for this
director. He knows how to frame action scenes and how to use creative editing
and acting to improve his films. I hope that this director continues to make
more films like this and hopefully will grow as a director and make a more
thematical coherent movie. Overall, I really enjoyed this film but I think that
with a little more edge and bite, this could be something really special.
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Score
Liam S. O'Connor