3/10. The Curse Of The Video Game Movie: rubbish plotting, cardboard cut-out characters, high body-count with no emotional connection whatsoever. The plot was contrived re-living via dna an ancestor's experiences/high tech gizmo in order to get a mysteriously high-tech-looking "apple" (yes THAT apple that tempted Eve, she'd have ended up toothless biting into that one) which takes away free will, and that was knocking about Spain hundreds of years ago. Apparently free will is down to genetics....

All I can say is, NOBODY fools the Spanish Inquisition... but they gave it a go here.

1 point for the effects, 1 for Michael F's bodybuilding regime and 1 for the habit of looking moody on rooftops.

If I may inquire, have you ever played the games or have any knowledge of their 'world'?

Errr no, sadly I dont have hours to spare getting hooked into video games (I became obsessed back in the very basic 80's and decided it was just frustrating me, numbing my brain after hours playing, and wasting my time). Seem to be all based on the same basic "fight. shoot. kill. win/lose" premise, with plot variations around that, which no doubt gives millions days of fun playing, but the movies come over as an expensive advert for the video game rather than a coherent character/plot combo.

OK. I was just curious because the people I know who've played the games seem to get a lot more out of the film than those who haven't, and I include people whose opinions tend to be more discerning as well. It makes me think fore-knowledge of the universe fills in many blanks in the narrative.
I've yet to see it but the plot of the film seems pretty close to that of the first game - using a machine to access ancestors' memories locked within human dna (which I grant is a slightly ludicrous idea but does allow for many different settings and is no dafter than, say, time travel), which actually works rather well in game. However the film has had to try and cram all this info into what is probably only the first half of the film and the game builds on it over hours.