DarkGame has a rather interesting premise: a detective finds himself in a race against time to stop a game show on the dark web, where captives are forced to play deadly games to compete for their lives. The story mainly focuses on the detective while also showing several scenes from the game show. To make the experience more immersive, the audience also follows one of the characters inside the game show. However, her character is uninteresting; the only notable thing about her is that she recently moved to the city after leaving her ex-husband and now lives with her son and her mother. That's essentially her entire character.
In general, the characters weren't particularly compelling, apart from the game show's presenter and a prisoner who seemed to base his performance on Hannibal Lecter. These two characters were fun and stood out, even though they were fairly stereotypical and ultimately one-dimensional.
The premise was engaging, and I do enjoy stories where a detective pieces together clues to track down a villain. However, this movie was far from flawless. It suffered from logical inconsistencies, poor acting, horrendous cinematography, and several pointless, unintelligent scenes. There were many aspects that didn't work.
Beyond the general concept, there wasn't much redeemable about this film, though I can't say I wasn't entertained for most of it. With more talent behind and in front of the camera and a couple of rewrites to the script, this could have been much better. I wouldn't mind seeing a remake in the next few years that improves on the story and other elements.
It's not a great movie, but it manages to pass the time. Sadly, that's not enough for me to recommend it.
