Tetris (2023)
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Tetris Movie Review
Tetris is a 2023 biographical thriller film directed by Jon S. Baird and starring Taron Egerton. It’s a reasonably diverting, but silly movie.
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“Good ideas have no borders“
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Henk Rogers discovers Tetris in 1988, and then risks everything by travelling to the Soviet Union, where he joins forces with inventor Alexey Pajitnov to bring the game to the masses. First off, the very idea behind this movie is all wrong. What you have here is basically a story about an American who brings Tetris to the Western market while in the process helping out the Russian inventor. It’s a classic case of the American savior narrative that has become very tiresome by now.
But it could have been so much worse at the end of the day. At least Alexey Pajitnov got a reasonable amount of screen time and development. Nikita Yefremov was phenomenal in the role and his arc was believable and well written. The friendship that Alexey and Henk strike was very endearing and the heart of the picture.
The movie is also not Russophobic at all. They couldn’t help themselves but include those unnecessary and plain dumb crime elements with the chase scene toward the end being ridiculous and unbelievable. Of course it was entirely made-up. But at least their depiction of Soviet Russia was realistic, especially the communist and bureaucratic part of it. They don’t spare the Americans either as they were depicted as greedy capitalists, but still a much stronger emphasis on the dangers of Capitalism and unscrupulous business deals would have made the movie more palatable to non-American viewers.
The Tetris movie is fun and vibrant. It is a crowd-pleaser that is meant to appeal to the largest masses and it succeeds in that goal undoubtedly. The almost heist and spy thriller elements on display are silly, but definitely a lot of fun. There is an element of excitement, suspense and danger that is retained throughout this flick and this is what made it so extremely entertaining. Yes, the real life story wasn’t as exciting, but the movie still honored this classic game while also including some very nice touches – the cars when crashing become pixilated and the scene transitions are entirely computer-animated in that classic late 80s adventure game styling.
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Taron Egerton was terrific as Henk Rogers. He was entirely believable and very charismatic in this well written and likable role. He stole the show from everybody else and this might be his finest performance to date. His family needed more screen time and the other characters ranged from evil politicians to buffoons, but most were solidly realized. The movie has an overwhelming number of business negotiations scenes, but they were filmed in such a suspenseful manner that they were actually exciting to follow. The score, cinematography and editing are all top-notch. It’s fluffy material for sure, but it’s at least extremely well executed.
The Tetris movie turned out much better than expected. Yes, it’s not particularly sophisticated in its basic plot and it’s far from historically accurate, but at least the thrilling, suspenseful tone and brisk pace elevated what otherwise could have been a tedious business story to something that was surprisingly entertaining. The flick has an annoying American savior narrative, but Taron Egerton was very charismatic in the main role and the movie was so well shot, edited and scored that it was a blast to watch throughout in spite of its numerous flaws.
My Rating – 3.5
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