Tetris [Movie Review]
By: Mithrandiel
With Super Mario Bros. and Dungeons & Dragons in the theaters, I wouldn’t blame you for missing another major gaming-themed movie that recently went live on Apple TV+ - Tetris.
A dramatized (and I do mean dramatized) depiction of how the block-dropping puzzler came to the US, Tetris delivers charm and groan-worthy caricatures in (almost) equal parts.
Henk Rogers, our vigilant “Player 1” of the story, is brought to life Kingsman actor Taron Egerton. A charismatic salesman and video game developer in his own right, Rogers’ story with Tetris begins at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) back in 1988. After a failed venture in launching a video game version of Go (“It’s like chess…but way more complicated.” he explains to disinterested passers-by), Rogers finds his attendant distracted by another game at the show.
After spending just 5 minutes playing this game, Rogers purchases the distribution rights in Japan for video game consoles and arcade…or does he?
After an incredible drop-in meeting with Hiroshi Yamauchi, then president of Nintendo, Rogers returns to his lender to ask for an additional loan of $3 million so that he can produce arcade cabinets and cartridges for Nintendo.
Things begin to fall apart, however, when it’s revealed that the arcade rights for Tetris were actually previously sold to Sega (or were they?). What follows is a maze of licensing shenanigans and drama, all set between Tokyo, Seattle, and most notably - behind the Iron Curtain that is Russia in the late 1980s.
At times, the detail of the various licensing challenges feels worthy of an explanation you’d find in a scene from The Big Short: for example, when we learn the importance of clearly defining what a “personal computer” is for the sake of a licensing contract. Lacking the omniscient, omnipresent narrator, however, we instead have Rogers to rely on for most of our information.
From the start, Tetris is well aware that it is a movie about a video game. However, at times it conflates this with being a video game movie, which is a distinction I believe it could have observed a bit more closely. There are numerous transition scenes and character introductions that feature retro sprites and a pixelated landscape. While some use of this would be charming, it does overstay its welcome by about the mid-point of its two-hour runtime.
What perhaps frustrated me more than the frequent 8-bit tributes, however, was the cartoonish villainy depicted by the agents of the USSR. It honestly felt like I was watching Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle actively try to withhold the Tetris license. It doesn’t help that they are complemented by British billionaire Robert Maxwell and his son Kevin, who suffers the all-too-predictable insecurities of a man who has had everything given to him.
The caricatures that the Maxwells perpetuate are nearly as laughable as the KGB agents - such as when Kevin just happens to walk into a room with Robert and his associates shredding boxes of documents, only to be told it’s due to “redundant balance sheets”.
Uh huh. Sure.
Ridiculous antagonists aside, at its core, Tetris tells the story of Henk Rogers friendship with Alexey Pajitnov (played by Nikita Efremov), the Russian programmer who brought the game to life in the first place. Unsurprisingly, their scenes shine brightest, from an impromptu coding session to add a new feature to Tetris, to belting The Final Countdown at a local bar.
Another standout scene is the introduction of the Game Boy, and Rogers impassioned pitch around making Tetris the game to bundle with their new handheld system. Paraphrasing Rogers: “If you want to sell this new handheld to little boys, bundle it with Mario. But if you want to sell it to everyone, bundle it with Tetris.”
Overall, while you may find yourself rolling your eyes from time to time from seemingly over-the-top dramatization (I assure you Howard Lincoln was not involved in a car chase with the KGB), Tetris is still a captivating story that should be watched and appreciated.
Check it out on Apple TV+ today!
