Movie Finatics The Place for Movie Lovers
Related Articles
I always preach that the first responsibility of a movie dealing with historical subjects is to be dramatically compelling. You don’t go to the film to get an entirely historically accurate depiction; you want to, first and foremost, be entertained. To be entertained and enlightened. That’s why we go to the movies. Writer Noah Pink had to stretch some thin material here. There’s no denying Jon S. Baird’s Tetris moves at a brisk pace and, I suppose, is watchable enough, but it feels very slight indeed. It’s the story of video game rights played out against the backdrop of the Cold War. I won’t deny that I have some interest in the story. I grew up playing Tetris all the time and being addicted to it. Hence, the idea of learning about its founding and the story of the rights behind it was appealing. Still, Tetris doesn’t have enough dramatic oomph and resorts to making shit up significantly during the portion of the film set in the Soviet Union to stretch thin material. I would argue there are better ways to be more dramatically compelling with this story without resorting to political thriller spy cliches.
This being an Apple TV production, it’s no surprise the movie paints the Soviet Union negatively. That’s not surprising, and even for dramatic purposes, I’m not against it. Still, it’s almost comical how they had to include nearly a spy thriller subgenre plot of KGB agents and international intrigue. The film is going for practically a combination of The Social Network meets Argo and Bridge of Spies. It’s a film that focuses not on the life of Alexey Pajitnov, the Soviet creator of Tetris, but the beurocratic maneuvering behind getting Tetris as a pack-in game for Nintendo’s wildly successful Game Boy. The best part of the film, and when it feels like it might take off, is when Henk Rogers (the main underdog character) and Alexey bond over their passion for game design. However, it’s all steeped in the backdrop of Soviet political intrigue that feels forced. The Soviets in Tetris feel like something from a James Bond film from the Cold War era. I must mention the Bond-inspired car chase, which comes out of nowhere. There’s a genuine opportunity missed to explore this period instead of a cliche spy thriller plot. It just goes to show despite the complicated subject matter the film doesn’t really have anything on its mind besides shallow thrills.
The plot is needlessly convoluted. I’m not even sure I can adequately explain it. It revolves around Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton doing his best), a fast-talking business shrewd programmer who comes upon the game Tetris at a trade show. He maneuvered his way into negotiating the gaming rights for Tetris, created in the Soviet Union. Complicating matters is that the rights of Tetris fall under the state in the Soviet Union, which means Henk and others have to go to the spooky Soviet Union to settle the dispute. Hence there are no rights in the West, and Henk wants to deal those rights with Nintendo. Sounds great. The only problem is the rights of Tetris are far more complicated than Henk could ever realize. The game has also been licensed to other companies, notably by Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam criminally underused) and his son, who must deal with the shifty Robert Stein (Toby Jones, also criminally underused).
I’m sure somewhere there’s a fascinating story here about the fall of the Soviet Union and crash-course Capitalism in the late 1980s, but Noah Pink never really examines it. Taron Egerton does the best he can with the material, though there’s one particularly jarring sequence where we have to hear Henk explain he’s part Indonesian (you’ll see). The idea of focusing the story on Henk as the piece’s hero is also a critical misstep. The highlight performance is by Russian actor Nikita Yefremov, the creator of the game Alexey. He is the only character that has any stakes at hand. The only problem is a film completely lacks any nuance or excitement. This is illustrated through title cards and character introductions in pixel forms. Tetris is intermittently entertaining and thoughtful but suffers from the critical misstep of focusing the film primarily on Henk as our hero. The crowning fault it’s not actually about the love of Tetris itself. The game is merely in the background. We’re forced to believe this story had some historical significance. It’s a stretch. I’m sorry.
** out of ****
