If you thought that Tetris was similar to other video game-inspired movies, such angry Birds Or Mario Bros., we can’t blame you. Who would have thought that the origins of this world famous game were bathed in an atmosphere of the end of the Cold War and that people put their lives in danger to obtain the distribution rights?
In the early 1980s, computer scientist Alexey Pajitnov created video games on the Electronica 60, a Russian computer, in his spare time. In 1984, he programmed the first version of Tetris. His colleagues from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR love it. Some members of the government then see an opportunity to sell the game abroad, but in a communist regime that is beginning to crumble, not all politicians favor the triumph of the fatherland.
Thus, we follow four men who struggle to obtain the rights to use Tetris. There’s Robert Stein (Toby Jones), who is used to dealing with Russians. Billionaire Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam) and his son Kevin (Anthony Boyle), who swears he knows President Mikhail Gorbachev well. Then, Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton), a Dutch businessman who lives in Tokyo and collaborates with Nintendo.
The story of the film is told from his point of view. Sympathetic and persistent, Henk is an ideal protagonist for a complex story of a battle for rights that could have been boring. Taron Egerton (Rocketman, Kingsman) delivers a compelling and energetic performance – maybe even too much. The rest of the cast is all in all pretty solid.
Screenwriter Noah Pink’s inclusion (the series genius) of historical events, such as the fall of the USSR, the implosion of Robert Maxwell’s empire and the creation of the Game Boy, makes the story all the more interesting.
Director Jon S. Baird (Stan & Ollie, Filth) actually too much – a lawsuit, really? – but keeps us intrigued. The contrast between the climate of Soviet oppression and the colorful world of video games is a success. Although cliché, the many pixelated animations, the main characters presented as “players”, the music by Lorne Balfe (Black Widow, Bad Boys for Life) which mixes the rhythms of the 1980s and video games of the time work.
Like the game, Tetris is a proposal that surprises and entertains us.
On Apple TV+
historical drama
Tetris
Jon S. Baird
With Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofya Lebedeva
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