Video game movies typically attract a built-in audience. IfWarcraftorFive Nights at Freddy’sdropped into theaters with any other title, they’d be ignored. The marketable IP ensures attention, for better and worse.Dead Triggeris in the underpopulated camp of video game adaptations that fell into the void the moment they were created. Those who choose to dig it up will find a pathetic zombie action movie that can’t stand alongside the worstResident Evilsequel.
Mobile games have a strange place in the market. They can sell 200 times more than blockbuster console titles, but they’re still seen as a lesser medium. When Blizzard announceda long-awaitedDiablosequelwould be exclusive to mobile devices, the live audience booed them. Phone games have a terrible reputation, even if they’re the most commonly played titles.
Dead Triggerand its sequel are bare-bones mobile zombie games. The titles come from a Czech publisher called Madfinger Games, who also have their names onSamurai: Way of the WarriorandShadowgun. Madfinger rose from theslow downfall of 2K Czech, which has now been subsumed into Hanger 13. 2K Czech was best known for creating theMafiafranchise. A few former employees formed Madfinger in 2008. Other former 2K Czech workers forged Warhorse Studios, the developersofKingdom Come: Deliverance.Dead Triggeris the best-selling work under Madfinger’s banner. It’s a first-person shooter in the model of something likeHouse of the Dead.
Dead Trigger 2takes the action off rails to allow players to move freely. Neither game has a narrative focus. Mobile games rarely center around the story. The first title follows Kyle, a survivor with military training who joins a community called New Hope. Kyle bonds with the compound’s leader, Julian.They shoot zombies andcollect currency to make improvements. In the game’s finale, Kyle discovers that the zombie plague was a deliberate scheme orchestrated by the rich. The sequel sees Kyle go global and wage war on the undead in several nations. Both games received positive attention on sites like Metacritic. The first title suffered historic amounts of piracy, though the devs were unclear about the exact numbers. They said,
Piracy rate on Android devices, that was unbelievably high. At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible - that’s why it was for as little as buck.
Mike Cuff and Scott Windhauser
Heinz Treschnitzer, Mike Cuff, and Scott Windhauser
Rotten Tomatoes Score:
5% with less than 50 reviews
Dead Triggerpartially adapts the first game’s narrative, but its approach is abnormal. Rather than telling the generic story, it uses the mobile title as a plot point. LikeThe Last Starfighter, the game stands in as a recruiting method to continue the war against the undead. Those who earn high scores will pick up real weapons and join the fight. In-universe, the government developed the game. Kyle returns,portrayed by Dolph Lundgren. Captain Kyle Walker is a comically “cool” character. He’s said to be a rock star before he became a zombie-fighting revolutionary and super soldier. Kyle leads the army of gamers-turned-marines to battle the zombie hordes and find a team of scientists who may have developed a cure. The premise hides an otherwise uneventful plot.
One Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic has weighed in onDead Trigger. That critic, Bobby LePire for Film Threat, gave it a four out of ten. Only a few audience members bothered to offer their thoughts, leaving the project with a 5% positive score. To mirror the opinion of most,Dead Triggerisn’t the worst video game movie ever made. It wouldn’t even crack the top ten. It comes across like an Asylum knock-offofResident Evil: Apocalypse. The narrative is sluggish and uninspired. The action lacks impact. The characters are either soulless or ripped from other titles. Lundgren has more to do in hisExpendablesfilms, leaving him a poor showcase. Though everything looks cheap and gray,Dead Triggerisn’t an abysmal film. It doesn’ttry hard enough to inspire hatred. It’s a cold, dull waste of time. It’s closer to a corpse than a zombie.
Dead Triggeris so lifeless that its release sparked no reaction. Saban, the company behindPower Rangers, broughtDead Triggerto the States without fanfare. It dropped into a few theaters and every digital on-demand service to an indifferent public. How does a moviewith one recognizable starand a well-received video game behind it drop silently into the void? It’s a consequence of modern film distribution. No one cared enough to putDead Triggerin front of viewers who might enjoy it. A similar absence of interest extended to the filmmakers and the audience. It’s not even worth watching to mock.Dead Triggershould stay buried.
