What did we think of the film “Tetris” with Taron Edgerton, which traces the invention of the famous video game created by a Russian engineer?
WHAT IS IT ABOUT ?
The incredible story of the most popular video game and how it met the enthusiasm of gamers around the world. Henk Rogers discovered Tetris in 1988 and risked it all when he traveled to the USSR, where he teamed up with Alexey Pajitnov, to bring the game to the world. Inspired by a true story, Tetris is an explosive thriller set in the Cold War, with traitors, improbable heroes and an infernal race against time.
WHO IS IT WITH?
It makes you wonder if the biopic is not Taron Edgerton’s favorite genre. After Elton John in Rocketman, or the skier Eddie Smith in Eddie the Eagle, the British actor returns to us this time in the skin of Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who made the Tetris video game known worldwide. .
The game designer is an engineer named Aleksei Pajitnov. The Russian actor Nikita Efremov – little known to the general public outside his native country – was chosen to lend him his features. His compatriot Igor Grabuzov plays a formidable KGB agent, Valentin Trifonov.
The former leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev is interpreted by the British Matthew Marsh. The cast of the film also includes Toby Jones, Roger Allam and Anthony Boyle.
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IT’S WORTH CHECKING OUT ?
Successful video game adaptations are rare, but what about a film that traces the genesis of one of the most iconic games there is? Lifting the veil on a story unknown to the general public, Tetris tells how the game’s incredible popularity almost led to the outbreak of World War III in the early 1980s.
This feature film by Scottish director Jon S. Baird (Stan & Ollie) is therefore presented as a biopic, where elements of comedy are intertwined but also codes borrowed from the political thriller.
A film that wants to be original (but which is not really)
The construction of the film is interspersed with chapters, animated by sequences in pixels which are not the most beautiful effect. Obviously, there was – in substance as in form – the desire not to fit into the academic codes of the biopic, but still it would have taken some really good ideas to achieve this.
The main problem with Tetris is its plot. If on the whole, the story that surrounds the design and then the distribution of this emblematic game amply deserves to be adapted into a feature film, its treatment does not bring satisfaction because of the endless (and very repetitive) scenes of negotiations. whose stake rests on obscure points of legal detail.
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You would have thought that a good knowledge of the Tetris video game would be enough to enjoy this film, but presumably some notions of the law will also come in handy, although the film’s script is agreed enough to make us understand who the good guys and the bad guys are. Of the history.
The outcome of the plot being a priori known, we can not really say that the film conceals surprises, and some better-crafted script twists would not have been refused.
A biopic on a little-known story
If he provides a minimum service compared to what he has been able to offer in the past, Taron Edgerton is nonetheless rather credible in the role of Henk Rogers, and his ability to alternate between comic and dramatic registers is works perfectly for the film.
His duo with Nikita Yefremov works, but the actor who does best is undoubtedly Igor Grabuzov, impressive in the shoes of a KGB agent working both for the interests of the motherland, but also for his own.
We can at least say that Tetris has found an interesting villain to ensure a minimum of suspense in the course of its plot.
So no, we can’t really call Tetris a failure or a bad movie, but the whole thing gives the impression of a simple high-end TV movie, and there’s no doubt that a greater narrative and visual ambition would have allowed it to break out of the conventional ranks of the biopic.
Still, the story that many will discover on the occasion of this feature film alone serves as a valid reason to watch Tetris, available exclusively from this Friday, March 31 on AppleTV +.