eHero

First of all, I'm not a gamer. Prior to viewing eHero, I knew nothing about the culture. Having seen the movie however, I think I have a degree of understanding of what gaming is about. For that aspect alone, I feel this movie is noteworthy. I love movies that are intriguing, coherent, and able to hold water. The character development is convincing and it was easy to find myself cheering for the good guys and despising the jerks. What a great ending!

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.

As an avid gamer I'm always disappointed there aren't more eSports and generally video game themed movies out there so I was quite excited at the prospect of eHero. I haven't enjoyed anything of this obscure sub-genre since the excellent Video Game Highschool (2012).

It tells the story of a young man (Aren't they always when it comes to gaming themed stuff) who after a high profile win gets the chance to join a team and really progress his eSports career.

Well first off consider me jealous, that would be right up there on my list of dream jobs but though it's increased on popularity I still have absolutely no faith in it as it's simply not taken seriously by enough people (The ones with money and power).

Now again I was looking forward to this, I thought it was likely to be a 90 accurate portrayal of someones journey into professional esports. Alas I was sorely mistaken.

eHero is Hollywood eSports, what I mean by that is instead of doing a standard realistic movie based on the industry they adopted all the usual sports movie tropes (To the letter) and threw ridiculous amounts of needless backstories and dramatics to keep people interested. We don't need that, we needed an enjoyable movie that tells a story within eSports not THAT!

If you've seen a sports movie, any sports movie at all then you'll know exactly how this is structured. Trouble is you know all the macho nonsense that usually goes with them? Yeah that's present here as well and simply shouldn't have been.

eHero on paper is something that I should have really enjoyed, it's something that quite frankly I crave. The end result? A cliched mess made by people who have absolutely no clue when it comes to gaming or eSports. And if I'm wrong and the people do know about those two things, then that is SO much worse.

Should be a movie for gamers, isn't.

The Good:

Decent concept

The Bad:

Unlikeable characters

Poor soundtrack

Opts for dramatics over realism

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

First of all this film is not terrible. It's a film aimed at a specific market of gamers. You have never seen a film like this so specific towards gamers, I don't mean like ready player one either, I mean the life of an actual pro gamer going from tournament to tournament.

Now the story is ok, it's simple and easy to follow, there is some character and relationship development but not that deep. The acting is ok, nobody you recognise (Sean Aston cameo) and with the script they all did an ok job, the pace is quite good and I wasn't ever bored. I think in the right hands with a bigger budget this could have been a hit. For example use a real game like Overwatch or Fortnite and get a couple of established stars and this could have been quite successful. Unfortunately without that this falls to much into the OK category and for that reason won't be seen by many or get good enough reviews.

Worth noting the director is like 19 years old and did a solid job by the looks of production. If your a gamer or have an interest in a view of the professional gaming lifestyle then I would recommend watching this.