eHero

We admire good, decent people, but to make a story gripping you need a nasty villain. eHero gains a lot of emotion from the character, Jonathan Spencer (Sean Colby), an especially cruel young man totally eaten up by jealousy and a desire not just to win a lucrative prize in professional gaming, but to crush and physically humiliate his rival, Tyler Conway (Greg Hovanessian). Our villain resorts to whatever violence he can get away with, and to psychological warfare, stooping to dominate our hero's love interest. Colby plays this role to the hilt.

We all hate a bully, and we feel for Tyler Conway's demoralization. But Tyler and his team of odd-balls are resourceful and creative. A strong point of this film is how Tyler and team find a niche in society, a place where their unusual skills are useful and thrilling . MIT is so successful because it does the same thing for nerdy young people with talent.

The film is fast paced, never boring and well acted, and introduces you to the world of professional gaming which is growing faster than anyone expected, right before our eyes.

EHero is basically a teen sports movie, if you replace sports with eSports. From start to finish the film is peppered with details that competitive gamers will appreciate, but it's still enjoyable by casual gamers and those who grew up watching siblings play games. The game of choice is "Reflex Arena" which is a First Person Shooter inspired by Quake. Outside of the movie, the Reflex developers and community came up huge in support for eHero to provide over 20 minutes of high quality choreographed game-play footage per the script that showcase frenetic action along with an attractive in-game art style across a variety of worlds.

The movie is in a weird place as far as budget goes as it is too big compared to most indie films, but way too small for Hollywood. A major production company with a larger budget may have been flashier with effects but left out certain struggles (no spoilers!) that professional gamers encounter. Although some people will inevitably bash aspects of the movie here and there, I think it hit the perfect mix of realism in gaming and drama.

It's just a game. Well, no! Gaming is addictive and destructive. Again, no! Food, sex, and drugs provide stronger dependencies than any game ever will. If you stare at the flashing computer screens, loud noises and arcade ambience, you missed the crux of this movie. This is educational gamification at its best brought to the big screen. The e-Hero storyline is a backdrop for a human journey trajectory that we can all identify with. This isn't simulation. It's reality with a brutality we would wish on no-one. I'm not a gamer. But I value the learning embodied in this movie about gaming. I'm not stimulated to invest in gaming apparatus. But I am intrigued by problems and patterns we all experience, in varying degrees, in our relationships. The story picked away at my expectations and preconceptions. It jived emotional climate. The entire experience was therapeutic. No, it's not just a game. Rather, it's a remarkable story with grit and resonance for any thoughtful observer.

While I'm a gamer and understand much of the 'culture' what I was looking for is a good movie. This could have been a good movie with gaming elements, would have been fine. It could have been a mediocre movie with excellent gaming elements and again it would be fine. It could be just average. Again I'm not difficult to please.

However what we got is a pure corn-cheese product that you can't finish the first 20 minutes of without thinking that submerging yourself in a vat of acid is much more preferable.

The problem is that first the premise is barely there. Aside from having PCs and that people game on them there is nothing there that belongs to the gaming culture or makes me as a gamer think: oh yeah. I get that. Pretty cool.

Apparently gaming is a sort of obscure thing that needs thousands of hours of research on a far away island in the middle of the ocean. So the director is excused for not portraying that.

So aside from a complete failure to do anything but reference gaming what do we get?

No characters No plot. Very cliched villain. Very cliched story.

The villain is pure cheese to the point that you wonder if they were trying to do an essay on boring villains.

Yes people. This happens and apparently the director decided to play in a no police mode. So the law does not exist.

If that is not enough the main character and overall plot has the same appeal a 2 week old half eaten maggot infested eggplant has.

Honestly there is nothing to watch here. A failure to be both a gaming movie and just a movie.

Some android indie games has more story and art than this let alone consoles and PC games or actual movies.

So save your time and go do something more entertaining like watching paint dry.

In the first 2min you will understand this quality, this movie feels like some low budget inde college movie project