Movie Review: WarGames: The Dead Code (2008)
Synopsis: Despite warnings from Stephen Falken, the creator of the War Operation Plan Response artificial intelligence that nearly caused World War III, the United States government has moved forward with another AI program known as RIPLEY, which is designed to find terrorists. High school student and computer genius Will Farmer accidentally draws RIPLEY's attention when he steals money from a neighbor to play an online gambling game based on terrorist attacks as a way to earn money for a school trip to Canada. The program overreacts to that and other data and flags Will as a terrorist, forcing him to flee authorities with his girlfriend, Annie, as soon as their plane lands.
Who's in it? The movie stars Matt Lanter, Amanda Walsh, Gary Reineke, Maxim Roy and Chuck Shamata.
Review: Even though WarGames is one of my favorite movies, I was admittedly unaware of the sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code, until I came across it on ScreenPix a couple days ago. Even though I had doubts about it, I was intrigued enough to give it a try this morning and it ended up being a pleasant surprise.
Much like the original, this film portrays an intriguing scenario, where the government relies on AI as a tool but puts too much faith in its capabilities. In this case, rather than nearly starting a war, RIPLEY misinterprets everything from a high school kid playing a video game to receiving money from a neighbor as a thank you gift, creating an inaccurate terrorist threat. And that is before it goes completely off the rails, attempting murder and taking control of military weapons for the sake of "national security."
One thing I found I liked about this movie was it was fast paced. In fact, it probably had more action in it than the movie it's based off. It doesn't take long to get to the main plot and once it does, there is very little downtime (though still just enough to let a romance develop between the two main characters).
I also liked how the film manages to connect itself to the original by bringing back Stephen Falken (Reineke) and WOPR (aka Joshua). It was just enough to make this a legitimate sequel while still allowing the film to be a movie of its own as well.
The battle between the two AIs at the end was also intriguing, especially since once was considerably older and, in theory at least, not as advanced. This led to some moments of suspense as well, with the possibility of a nuclear threat once again becoming real.
My only real complaint about this movie was Will's (Lanter) decision to run in the first place. It seemed kind of odd considering he didn't know what kind of trouble he was in at the time and felt a bit like he could have solved a lot of problems for himself and those around him simply by giving himself up and explaining the situation. However, a movie has to movie, so I guess I'll overlook that.
Final Opinion: The original is still better, but this film was reasonably entertaining and had a healthy balance of being its own movie while still paying tribute to the first film. I enjoyed watching it as a result.
My Grade: B+
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2008:
Movie Review: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)
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