Video Games: The Movie takes on a difficult task. As a medium, games haven’t been around that long, but a ton has happened in those 40 years. Their birth, the crash, arcades, online gaming, violence, eSports -- this documentary covers it all with plenty of information and context from industry legends. Unfortunately, at times, it can trip over its own wealth of content, but that’s no reason not to give this one a watch.
The film starts way, way back, with the invention of Space War and the other earliest video games. As time progresses into the '70s and '80s, and Atari and Nintendo come into prominence, we’re treated to original footage of console production and video game commercials. If you lived through those years, the old manufacturing and marketing videos will invoke plenty of nostalgia. If, like me, you weren’t alive yet, Video Games: The Movie offers a fascinating look at how games were produced and sold. Their position in our culture then, contrasted with now, is placed front and center to great effect.
Interviews with game industry luminaries like Atari creator Nolan Bushnell are fascinating and invaluable. Their first-hand experience and knowledge simply has no substitute, and it’s a joy to hear them talk about having a hand in the rise of a brand new medium. Their input carries an authenticity you have to appreciate.
One of the film’s biggest problems lies within the way it’s organized. The earliest moments of the film feel like a public service announcement, with an overload of stats about the kinds of people who play games, how often they play games, and how many billions of dollars the industry brings in annually. It feels like a primer for people who know very little about games.
Later on, there’s an awkward, in-depth discussion about how pixels work. The overlap between the people who care about an introduction to games and gamers, and the people who care about the nitty gritty science between a CRT monitor, probably isn’t that big.
Video Games: The Movie also tries to stick to a chronological timeline, but it constantly jumps back and forth on that timeline, which makes it hard to keep track of what’s going on. Those of us who know about the crash of ‘83 will be confused as the documentary skips right past it. It circles back later and touches on the important failure, and on Nintendo’s revival of the industry, but only after dipping into the present day first. The movie is more interested in jumping from topic to topic, so the decision to present its info in a timeline is confusing.
No comments:
Post a Comment