Apple’s Tetris movie is a slick Cold War thriller that’s too much flash

Box Brown’s 2016 graphic novel People Play Tetris explores the creation of Alexey Pajitnov’s TetrisIn the larger context of human play. It begins with Ancient Egypt’s ancient game Senet and then jumps to the 19th century Japan where the foundation of Nintendo was made. TetrisA household name. The scene setting is an important foundation for understanding how to build. Tetris went from a hobbyist diversion created during the Soviet era to a global phenomenon — and how math, science, and art collide to form video games.

Apple’s new movie TetrisTakes a new approach and turns the story around. Tetris and its escape from Russia into an uneven Cold War spy thriller with an ’80s pop-culture veneer. It’s a glossy, abridged version of the events that led to the game’s global success, focusing less on Pajitnov than on desperate businessman Henk Rogers (the Kingsman movies’ Taron Egerton) and how he attempts to untangle the Tetris rights so he and Nintendo can score millions from Pajitnov’s game.

TetrisWhen it recounts the complicated negotiations which determined who had the rights, the movie shines. SellVideo games Tetris.Directors Jon S. Baird & Noah Pink fought a long and difficult struggle to get contracts. Tetris in the late 1980s at the heart of their movie about the making — and the exploitation — of Pajitnov’s hit puzzle game.

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This all looks a bit absurd onscreen: Suit-clad men yell at colleagues and subordinates that they are not listening It is necessary to get both arcade and handheld Tetris rights! Now!! But the real-life puzzle game Soviet state employee Nikolai Belikov plays with Rogers and his rivals — the conniving Robert Stein and villainous Mirrorsoft execs Kevin and Robert Maxwell — is fascinating to watch. As he masterfully sequesters them from each other in ELORG’s dingy offices, slick-haired KGB goons try to muck up the negotiations through spying and menacing intimidation tactics.

Ironically, much of the film’s rest is less interesting than what happens during a contract negotiation. TetrisRogers presents himself as an unafraid Soviet dealer, and a wheeler/dealer at the edge of financial catastrophe. TetrisWithout their consent. Pink suggests that Rogers may feel regret at being an absent father. This is part of Pink’s chase to seize the opportunity. TetrisRights consumed him.

But when the movie shifts into its action segments — including an outlandish car chase that’s strangely pixelated — it beggars belief. Rogers and Pajitnov (ex-Nintendo employees) never seemed to mention this thriller-movie experience being part of their film. TetrisThese scenes are interpreted as manipulations rather than genuine stories. Just as captivating is the real story TetrisIt raises repeatedly the question. Was this really possible? TetrisFans who watched the BBC documentary Russia, Love or read David Scheff’s The Game is Over: Nintendo Takes Control of the WorldYou may also have the same gnawing questions.

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The film’s creators note that Tetris is “based on a true story,” a traditional disclaimer that gives Baird and Pink infinite dramatic license to fictionalize Rogers’ time in Russia. Some of the shocking developments seen here are true: Mirrorsoft’s Robert Maxwell really did go all the way to the Soviet Union’s then-leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to try to secure the rights to Tetris. But there are points in the film where the taken-from-reality portions of the story part ways with the obviously-written-as-a-thriller scenes, and the movie becomes less interesting as a result. This movie feels quite similar. ArgoIt’s evident, in particular, in its dramatic scenes and streamlining of crucial details.

Tetris’ creation and its worldwide spread is a great story, but the complexities of its thorny rights issues and lawsuits don’t fit with the cartoon villainy and heavy dramatization of Apple’s new film. Despite Baird and Pink’s best attempts at cinematic tension and surprise twists, this story plays better elsewhere, in the retellings with a firmer grip on reality.

TetrisPremieres on Apple TV Plus March 31