I have been a gamer since I stood on a chair at Crystal’s Pizza and played Super Mario Bros. arcade for the first time. Every gamer, from every generation, has a story like mine, yet no two stories are exactly alike. By the time I joined in the fun of console gaming, the original Nintendo Entertainment System had already been around these parts for a few years. I will not forget it. I was surrounded by my cousins at Granny’s house, covered in chicken pox. Thankfully, this granted me an extra week away from school and, thusly, more time to break in my new gaming console. What times!

Not long after all this, a handheld console by Nintendo was released: the Gameboy. Unlike several of the other, competitor’s handheld systems, this one contained a very basic color palette, which meant longer battery life and a lower cost per unit, overall. It was another successful concept for Nintendo, but this was only part of the reason why the Gameboy sold so well. Packaged with the first copies of this device was a simple, yet addictive game, named “Tetris.” It is a funny name, yes, but the story behind the inspiration for THAT is not nearly as compelling as the story of how Nintendo eventually gained the rights to mass produce this game for their little console. Now, a feature-length movie, “Tetris,” is making its way to Apple TV+ (roughly 33 years later).

Of course, this is not the first time a feature of any kind has been made about “Tetris.” A few years ago, The Gaming Historian, of YouTube fame, released a very detailed and intriguing video documenting the process of the game’s creation and its eventual journey beyond the iron curtain of the former Soviet Union. THIS film spends only a small amount of time going over how the game was created and focuses a lot more of its time on the process of earning rights to distributing it around the world. I would like to point out, in this movie, the British are every bit as much of an antagonist to our story’s protagonist as the Russians are.

Portraying the lead is Taron Egerton (“Sing 2”) as Henk Rogers, a failed gaming creator, who owns a small company in Japan, but has to secure massive bank loans in order to even try to procure the rights to a a masterpiece such as “Tetris.” Over in Great Britain, another man is trying to do the same thing for HIS company (a much larger one). He is Robert Stein, played by Toby Jones (“The Pale Blue Eye”). His challenges are a bit different than that of Rogers.’ Although money does not seem to be an issue, he needs to earn his own portion of it and if he does not, there is no point for him to be involved in the first place. In other words, he answers to someone else, who holds his livelihood in their hands. They are: Roger Allam (“The Hippopotamus”) as Robert Maxwell and Anthony Boyle (“Tolkien”) as Kevin Maxwell; a father-son duo in which one man holds all the cards in the deck and the other is trying to take a few of those cards just so he can appear to be more authoritative. Their interactions are often quite funny, throughout.

Now, I must introduce the genius behind the titular product. His name is Alexey Pajitnov, played by Nikita Yefremov (“Hostel”). His role in the film is somewhat limited, but grows as the story unfolds. Truly, it would be difficult to learn much about such individuals at the time of their prime because the USSR was extremely secretive to the rest of the world, especially the United States. However, Mr. Pajitnov is now an American and although he still likes to maintain his privacy, his story is one that I think more people ought to learn about, whether they are a fan of gaming history or not. Just for your information, Alexey has been a part of the making of 18 video games, in total, with at least five of them being related to his original game, all the way back in 1984. Hs latest credit comes from 2013.

The makers of “Tetris,” the movie, tried to make this project as vivid and entertaining as they could. Throughout, there are references to the game and the industry, which should be familiar to anyone who played video games during this time period. The director, John S. Baird (“Stan & Ollie”) has not been particularly active within the last few years until very recently. As for the screenwriter, Noah Pink (“Genius”), this was to be his first feature-length movie, coming off extended work for a series that ran for several years prior. Undoubtedly, some creative liberties were taken in the making of “Tetris” and I was aware of some of these details quite early and fairly often. The real-life Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov made some suggestions for the script, but ultimately had to concede some of the figurative alterations for the sake of the film.

Possibly the most curious aspect, for me, before I sat down to watch “Tetris” was how they would go about recreating the old Soviet Union as it appeared during the 1980s. I was pleased with how this was executed and I also think the effort for creating the mindset and actions of those behind the iron curtain was commendable. One scene that really stood out to me, although I would question its authenticity, involved members of the KGB and ELORG (the national organization which owned the rights to all creative computer properties in the USSR) splitting up their time between three, simultaneous meetings about the various rights to “Tetris.” It was very humorous in its final execution, but might have been symbolic as to how controlling and inept these individuals could be under such odd circumstances. At times, you will feel sorry for them and the people trying to do business with them, too.

All in all, I think “Tetris” was a pretty entertaining story, but I do not think it will appeal to very many people outside of the world of gaming, aside from those who enjoy history, in general. Even though I would recommend viewing this project, as a film critic, I would STILL advise those who are interested in this movie to check out the documentary made by Norman Caruso because I believe it is a lot more accurate, historically-speaking, and yet it is still of great quality from a production standpoint. You can compare and contrast these two and see what you think of both of them. It is quite possible that if you watch “Tetris,” first, you may enjoy it a bit more than I did. Either way, I am saying it is worth your time to find out.

Director: Jon S. Baird

Screenwriter: Noah Pink

Cinematography: Alwin H. Kuchler (“The Mauritanian”)

Starring: Taron Egerton, Toby Jones, Nikita Yefremov, Roger Allam, Anthony Boyle, Togo Igawa as Hiroshi Yamauchi, Ken Yamamura as Minoru Arakawa, Ben Miles as Howard Lincoln, Matthew Marsh as Mikhail Gorbachev and Rick Yune as Larry

Distributor: Apple TV+

Release: March 15th, 2023 (SXSW) and March 31st, 2023 (Apple TV+)