Today’s quick review: The Call Up. Seven gamers are chosen to test a state-of-the-art augmented reality system for a mysterious company. Equipped with haptic feedback suits and AR visors, the players enter a simulation that transforms an abandoned office building into a lifelike military shooter. But as the game goes on, the players realize that they are playing for their lives.
The Call Up is a science fiction action movie that blurs the line between game and reality. The Call Up features decent visual effects, a promising premise, and a steady stream of low-grade action. However, its dull characters and lackluster writing keep it from making anything too impressive of itself. The movie manages to deliver some cheap thrills in a competent manner, but does little more.
For a short movie, The Call Up takes a long time to develop. The game is introduced right away, but the players spend more time talking about it than playing it. The movie only addresses its central mystery near the very end, and while the explanation is interesting enough, there is not much substance to it. The AR effects are fairly stylish, but the game world is a generic military shooter with almost no character of its own.
The Call Up’s characters are not too bad but are not used to their fullest. The players fill the typical roles in the death game genre, and their varying reactions to the situation around them are the movie’s bread and butter. But as real people, the characters are lacking. Total anonymity would have fit the premise just fine, but instead the movie opts for token amounts of backstory that are never properly developed.
Give The Call Up a shot if you are looking for a quick, mediocre entry into the death game genre. Though the movie gets a few things right, it is outclassed by its competitors. Most viewers would be better off looking elsewhere. For a darker, more brutal, and better-executed take on a similar concept, check out Gantz: O. For a mysterious thriller with a better plot and less violence, check out Exam.
4.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for a decent premise marred by limited vision and poor writing.