Computers! What are they?
what can they do?
Hell if I know.
Thank God there's a kid that plays Galaga, he seems to know whats up.
Anyways WarGames is one of those popular 80s films that everybody else has seen, that I never personally got around too.
And now that I have seen it well I can say that it was okay. I liked all the parts with the NORAD base and the kind of entertaining (if not slightly impossible) computer science. Especially how Matthew broderick's character was able to log on to a supercomputer using a back door passcode.
How the heck does a kid who's obsessed with computers not know about back-doors?
Obviously the audience has no idea what that is, but I still would have found a way to write that in a little better. Maybe have his girlfriend ask about it or somebody else.
So this is one of those films that you could spend hours nitpicking if you are so inclined to do so. There's no real benefit to doing that and you'd only be ruining the film for yourself but there is one flaw that I find just a little hard to overlook.
The guys who built his computer are fully aware that technical engineer who originally designed it, is alive and well.
You'd think they would want to call him up or even go and pick him up once their computer started having a bunch of random simulation tests with all their hyper Advanced missile equipment.
One could argue that the entire fault of this movie is placed firmly on the shoulders of the higher echelons running the place.
Then you remember it's the Ronald Reagan administration so it kind of makes sense.
I mean how are you expected to run anything with a modicum of security or efficiency when your head of state is a senile old giddy who believed he's living out the old days of a cowboy movie in his own head.
Isn't it weird that Wargames came out the same year as the Soviet Union had that false alert within their missile defence system. I mean there's no connection between the two, it's just kind of ironic that it should happen around the same time.
Also what a good time to fight the Soviet Union if you're a hyper advanced war computer wanting to obliterate the enemy with Hyper Advanced Precision. 1983 was not a great year in the Soviet Union it was politically unstable, stagnant and kind of confusing.
All in all it's a fairly decent little film. Despite its interesting premise the overall story structure feels very cookie cutter and basic for this era.
I kind of wish the film I pushed itself into a more ridiculous spot having more wacky Antics and over top acting. Or suppress itself a little bit and try to play it more straitlaced and direct. Either way I think I could have made for a more intriguing or dramatic film.
But ultimately we end up with a very safe enjoyable film which is kind of weird to say in giving that its subject matter of Global catastrophe caused by atomic bombs. But it gives you that little happy spiel about bombs are never the answer.
It's one of those films I felt did more to inspire interesting Concepts after the fact then try to achieve any itself. Like Blade Runner or Tron.
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