1Up

An overall decent quality production brought down to the bottom by an awful lazy writing full of commonplace scenarios and over-the-top stereotypical characters.

An entirely predictable story from start to finish - a team of misfits facing adversity - it could have been a fun easy watch if not for its harmful depiction of unidimensional over-the-top diversity stereotypes that go from gross to worse, exaggerated acting, as well as its extremely puerile humor based on genital and bodily function jokes; all of which this movie pretends to sell as actual positive representation.

Ironically, Ruby Rose is far from being the one to blame and was actually, along with Taylor Zakhar Perez, one of the actors whose work was rather entertaining within the severe writing limitations of the script.

All in all a total waste of time and a disservice to each and every community in their checklist.

I saw it on prime video, and felt it had an adequate opening, but dropped it right after they finished the practice match when I felt physical pain at the logic they had for the team. Before they finished the match, I even sympathized with the main character, since I was a support main back in my league days, but the stereotyping was misplaced, teams can't really do the misogynistic roles, and no one who knows any better disregards a support player. Other problems, role doesn't equal team position or skill. If you want to watch something with females in a good role, watch "King's Avatar" and save yourself the pain.

Going into this film I did not expect much. The reason I has so little-expectations for the film was primarily due to the 1.9 IMDb score which, I must admit, I know is probably (at least slightly) review-bombed. Nonetheless, I still gave it a shot. Initially there was nothing particularly terrible. Of course the cinematography and production design were... poor... but It was at least mildly interesting. Then 1UP revealed what it truly was! CRAP! The character dynamics between the two leads; Sloane and Lee were un-interesting and trivial at best. The acting from both actress' is also shockingly under-developed and thought out. However, the script is so poor that I bet no A-list actor could've given a real shot at it, so perhaps the actress' do have talents that just aren't represented here. The supporting cast and there characters are akin to a troupe of stereotypes you may have found in a 90s DTV Bottom-of-the-dollar-bin teen attempted-comedy. There are extended periods where the groups are playing each-other and these parts are excruciatingly boring. I can't continue this review without pointing out two of the most annoying characters I have had the insincere opportunity of watching. Lilly played by Madison Baines and Diane played by D. J. Mausner. Both characters are equally annoying in their own rights but the worst of the two is by-far Lilly. Lilly is the 'weird,quirky' friend in the main group and her whole character is based around this. More one-dimensional than the perfect line. And Diane is the gross chick in the group. But I hope to never see that damn lilly actress 'Madison Baines' in anyhting ever again!!! Terrible film. May provide inspiration to like two people. That's it. To the other 100,000. Pure Pain. PURE TORTURE!

So 10 minutes in they are talking about Lara Croft and how the industry sexualized her to sell games... then they have a girl as the lead with very large tracks of land wearing a tank top most of the time... If you're trying to rise above it or help others to do so, then why do you dive right down to the bottom of it, without ever coming close to getting to the bottom of anything... Though the big girl telling the dude bro .... you just don't see many pegging jokes.... Let's just say I wouldn't make a football movie without knowing even a little bit about the game of soccer. They made a really bad video game movie, and a worse movie about equality.

At Barrett University, Vivian "V" (Paris Berelc) and Sloane (Hari Nef) are two students attending the college on an esports scholarship playing for Barrett's team called the Betas. Following one too many casually sexist comments from the team's other members lead by team leader Dustin (Taylor Zakhar Perez), V and Sloane quit the team and start their own team the 8-Bits with Wheelchair bound influencer Jenna (Lolita Milena), eccentric oddball Lilly (Madison baines), and flatulent LARPing enthusiast Diane (D. J. Mausner). The group of misfits approach History of Video Games professor Parker (Ruby Rose) who had previously worked as a game designer before a glut of harassment and death threats force her to leave the industry out of fear for her son's life and while initially reluctant eventually is convinced to serve as the 8-Bits coach. Now with their scholarships and livelihoods on the line, the team must band together to overcome their own idiosyncrasies, win the intercollegiate esports tournament, and beat the Betas.

1up comes to us from director Kyle Newman and screenwriter Julia Yorks. Newman is no stranger to films tackling fan culture such as his 2009 film Fanboys, while Yorks is more known for her work in children's animated TV such as The Adventures of Puss n' Boots or Trolls: The Beat Goes On. With a charged premise like sexism in gaming and clear allusions to things like Gamergate, 1up seems like something that could've been a provocative satire of a recurring deep rooted problem we see in this community, unfortunately in execution it's a rehash of mid 2000s comedy tropes that have long since been run into the ground and only has fleeting moments of thematic or emotional resonance.

The movie is basically Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story only with Dodgeball replaced with esports gaming, but unlike Dodgeball which took an inherently pretty silly sport like Dodgeball and made the fandom around it part of the joke, 1up takes something that's very real with esports gaming but it presents it in a way that's very broad and glib like an ordinary lowbrow comedy but also talking real world ills in this fandom such as Swatting which is used as setup for a fart/poop joke. As a comedy the movie goes to the school of "loud=funny" so the cast is filled with a bunch of types who are given one note and they play that note at full volume so. Characters like Diane and Jenna are basically repackages of characters you see Rebel Wilson/Melissa McCarthy play or various eccentric weirdo characters like Steve the Pirate only the timing and interactions feel very off and force and become grating after a while. The first hour plays in this fashion but thankfully it does dial back the abrasiveness in the last third where it becomes tolerable if not "good" and I did get some chuckles from sight gags such as a scene in the game where Lilly plays a fire breathing chicken. Most of the characters don't really get a chance to stand out which is a shame as Paris Berelc has shown herself to be a capable actress in other things but has nothing to work with here. The one performance/character who works is Ruby Rose as Parker who's basically an amalgam of various female gaming figures who were forced out of the industry through organized harassment campaigns and she's the only character who gets any emotional resonance as a character and frankly her backstory would've made for a better movie and take on this subject matter.

1Up is given rich potential and squanders it in the most lowbrow and wasteful fashion it can. While it does address or try to address real world problems in the gaming community, the way it handles them in such a broad and glib fashion ends up working against its point rather than for it. If you want to learn more about this type of thing, you'd be much better informed simply reading an article about the real world events that actually inspired this movie. If you want to see a comedy about gamers, watch The Wizard (the characters in the movie even stop to do so), it's not "good" but it's enjoyable.