Would you like to play a game?  If it’s up to RIPLEY, the only thing that’s going to happen is complete it’s programing or drop a Nuclear bomb on Philly.  Serving as a sequel to the 1983 WarGames starring Matthew Broderick, Wargames: The Dead Code is directed by Stuart Gillard, who actually has a long list in TV credits.  Matt Lanter stars as the brilliant hacker Will Farmer with Amanda Walsh as Annie and Gary Reineke taking over John Wood’s role as Dr. Stephen Falken.  When Will Farmer plays a game called The Dead Code he unknowingly alerts RIPLEY, a anti-terrorist computer that considers Farmer a terrorist threat and forces him to the run as RIPLEY gets ready to destroy a US city to contain a bio threat that doesn’t exist.  Only with the help of another super computer can Farmer stop RIPLEY from killing hundreds of thousands of people, a computer that almost destroyed the world in 1983.

A couple of months ago when the first trailer for this direct to DVD premiered I said that I wasn’t even going to attempt to watch this because it looked terrible.  I wasn’t wrong in that assumption but at the same time I was mildly surprised.  WarGames 2 isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It does indeed have a couple of redeeming quartiles but in the end falls short, way short, of being a good follow up to the cult favorite from 1983.  I suppose after some reflection the best quality of WarGames 2 is that it does a fairly ok job as a chase movie.  Given it’s format as a direct to DVD and low budget you can’t expect to see The Bourne Ultimatum but for what it is and how it’s presented, I can’t say I’d complain about the execution of it’s chase aspect.  What I can complain about is that it isn’t suspenseful… more on that later.  The biggest surprise for me is the appearance of Dr. Stephen Falken and his super computer, JOSHUA.  Filmmakers brought back JOSHUA or the WOPR but made it looked old and weathered throughout the years.  Seeing it again and watching it as it works to defeat RIPLEY was something that I found fanboyishly funny.  Unfortunately these are the only redeeming qualities that I can find.

WarGames 2  is basically an exact copy of the original with the exact same strategy to stop RIPLEY; by making RIPLEY play out the WarGames scenario until it realizes that in a nuclear war, nobody wins.  This alone brings down the pacing of this film a tremendous amount and making it predictable, on top of that the pacing was already bad.  As mentioned before, WarGames is not suspenseful even if the chase aspect of it is presented well.  I never felt the character’s were in any danger, because at every turn the pacing was slowed by bad comedy relief or useless back story.  All of that doesn’t matter when you have to deal with dialog that is atrocious even if it’s a direct to DVD.  I can’t say the acting was terrible but when you have bad dialog you can’t help but roll your eyes at the actors that say the lines but if they were actually good actors, they might have made it bearable… they didn’t.  I don’t think it’s even worth mentioning the CGI aspect of it, but I have to just by saying….. no.

WarGames: The Dead Code doesn’t hold up to the shear originality of the original film and some fans might find The Dead Code offensive.  I might have been surprised on some qualities but I’d have to say overall, WarGames is not a good movie.  With some cool little nods, mainly about JOSHUA, this film has a bad copy of a plot, terrible pacing, useless back story and painful dialog.  I recommend that you stay away from this film.  If you want to buy a direct to DVD, The Gotham Knight is on the way.  If you want to stick with MGM,  Stargate: Continuum is going to be released at the end of July.  By the way, one of the games in this movie is Stargate Worlds.  WarGames 2: The Dead Code rates a 3.5 out of 10 in my book.  Thanks for the effort but it’s not even close… not like anyone expected it to be.

-Phil