Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Doesn't Seem Quite The Same

I watched the first 15 minutes or so of War Games: The Dead Code before leaving for work this morning. I remember the original War Games with Matthew Broderick so, naturally, I am going to compare the two.

I must say at first blush I am less than impressed. In the original, the protagonist had a certain innocence to him. He was just smart enough to get himself into trouble. He stumbled upon what looked like a gaming site then spent several days, in movie time, researching how to gain access. He employed the assistance of his smarter, and twitchier, friends/mentors to help him in his quest.

In this version, the two lead characters - I haven't figured out which is the protagonist yet - seem like the type of people that would-be gurus look to for advice and hacking strategies. One goes so far as to build a small device that can intercept cell phone calls and redirect them to a nearby phone instead of the one they were destined for. David Lightman was quite clever but just didn't seem mature enough to understand the full implications of his actions until he was face-to-face with them. He had that high school innocence. So far it seems these two schmos are in college. If not then I have to wonder why their first scene occurred in a dark room with computers/work areas next to each other as if they are roommates.

I have set myself up for disappointment but I have to watch out of simple morbid curiosity.

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