Parents in the 1980s wagged their fingers at their kids for getting figuratively sucked into video games. But maybe if more of those kids literally got sucked into video games, they’d have found them less compelling. That’s one theme for the new Scott Adkins VOD action movie
Max Cloud, which has a player getting pulled into a game,
Tron-style, and finding some embarrassing truths behind the big, familiar escapist tropes.
Game protagonist Max Cloud is the self-proclaimed hero of his own narrative: He’s the pilot of an intergalactic space cruiser, with a Greek god’s physique and a cocksure attitude earned through ferocious fighting prowess. Why wouldn’t he feel at least a little smug? But his ego is a smog enveloping his supporting ensemble, who he looks down on as mortal losers without appreciating the roles they play in his victories, or realizing they have more depth than him. “Kick ass first, ask questions if there are survivors” isn’t a replacement for a personality.