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.

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

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.

Actors were great! Storyline was very good. Characters were real and funny at times. The music throughout the movie was impressive. Gaming sections were fast and easy to follow with lots of action! I have a better understanding what drives so many gamers to reach the top. Very competitive. Love the tender love story. Overall, I really enjoyed watching the movie. I would highly recommend it!! Lastly, the Director pulled this one off. This is no easy topic.