When the previews first hit for “Gamer,” it looked like just another attempt to cash in on another trend in our culture with some explosions and sex appeal.

It did that, but “Gamer” had an actual message to it: we are heading in a dangerous direction with our love of depravity and yearning for experiences we don’t want to feel liable for.

This is a hefty thought to lay on someone going to a flick to catch some nudity and high-powered rifle driven head explosions; but then, that was the point.

The plot was nothing new. A regular, loving, family-centered guy was set up by a magnate who has delusions of grandeur. This guy (Gerard Butler), was in the military and is trying to get back to his wife and child.

The twist lies in the means.

In this world, set in the near future, our love of reality television and living vicariously through video games has offered the antagonist (Michael C. Hall) the opportunity to mix living people into the video game scenarios in order to make it feel all the more real.

The perversions and hostility and lack of personalities that are driving so many people of the world today are brought to light by a live-action version of “The Sims” video game and a series of pay-per-view events where convicts murder each other for the entertainment of the manipulated masses. All of this is made possible by technology designed to manipulate the minds of people who “volunteer” in exchange for freedom or money. Essentially the movie is making a social commentary by attacking itself.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately whoever was in charge of hammering out the details occurring while this message played out was not trying to enlighten the masses.

There are some cool action scenes and then there are some that were just plain filler.

Many scenes were spliced together in a way that leaves you wondering if someone dropped parts of the reel on the cutting room floor and didn’t care enough to pick them back up.

The events outside the living video games that churn the plot are merely a jumble of ideas taken from other movies that tried to cash in on current trends.

The over-stereotyping of the minor characters isn’t the problem.

The problem lies with these characters lacking definition. They are introduced and appear to be relevant, then poof, dead or discarded.

Like many movies today, the bad guy is given some of the best dialogue and scenes — I wonder if this could is another commentary on the direction that our idols are going.

There is an impromptu choreographed dance scene to Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” performed by some death-row inmates that makes the film laugh-out-loud funny, while Michael C. Hall gets to be devilishly charming with his James Bond villain-like declaration of his devious intentions. The whole film keeps you pretty entertained despite the obvious holes, especially for its outward appearance of a mindless violent movie experience.

The only real downer comes from the rush-job ending.

It’s like the men in charge simply could not figure out how to end the film and decided to not end it. This isn’t an interesting way to leave something open for a sequel, but more of a leaving something lying there because you were too lazy to be bothered.

An action film with a message and mindless entertainment straight out of your latest shoot-em up video game, top it off with random nudity and the coolest rave party ever and you have “Gamer.” Its worth the price of your movie ticket just to see how the world is made fun of.