Video Games: The Movie

First, the good news. If you enjoy your Video Game history books & documentaries, you will more than likely enjoy this. It's a fun overview of gaming, with plenty of enjoyable parts to make you nostalgic and entertained, done in that very slick, polished US Hollywood kind of way. A few celebrities pop through and talk about the effect gaming has had on their lives as well. Yes, I enjoyed it, and will purchase the DVD when it comes out next month as I love documentaries on the gaming industry. Now the bad news. It's very lightweight. It omits far too much to be considered a decent documentary on gaming history- And the earlier Documentary "Game Invasion"- which still made too many omissions- is still superior in that regard of better fuller coverage of the industry. If you are looking for a fun overview of gaming to watch, and can forgive many, MANY, omissions- and can forgive a bit of industry Cheerleading- you will still be entertained by this. Perhaps adding an extra 30-45mins and adding more detail may have sorted some of the issues. I think the reason there are quite a few exceptionally poor reviews for this, is because many feel this movie could have and should have been so much more, was hyped to be more, so left many disappointed. We still wait for the definitive Video Game History documentary. The recently released 'From Bedrooms to Billions' is a brilliant example of how it can be done- Which covers the early UK gaming industry. We need a similar thing done for the industry in general.

They utilize a timeline to go through the history of gaming but quite literally skip over consoles/years that weren't Sony or Nintendo. For someone who is passionate about gaming and grew up during this timeline, it is really disheartening to know this is the documentary we as gamers are given. Once they skipped over Dreamcast I was tempted to turn it off but i trudged through it. Dreamcast was revolutionary in it's own way. The online gaming, web browser and VMU were pioneering future gaming. But that's never mentioned. Then they skipped over XBOX to go through a PS3 montage that showed Gears of War. It's incredible how poorly educated the creators of this documentary were. The entire documentary is snippets of interviews and montages. You can find better production on Youtube videos. Honestly, do yourself a favor and skip over this.

The film completely ignores the co-development of PC games. A gaping hole as far as I'm concerned as the superior capabilities of the PC allowed the development of more sophisticated games(e.g. Wolfenstein 3D, Civilization etc.). The film also does not detail the corresponding improvement in microprocessor technology which completely dictated the advancements in graphics and game speed. Otherwise the film is well put together and for the most part touches on the major milestones of game history. Personally I would have enjoyed more emphasis on the early mainframe computer game development. For instance the origins of Colossal Cave Adventure and it's subsequent genesis into the RPG games of today

We love movies and documentaries on the video game industry and Video Games The Movie (2014) is the latest entry in this education/entertainment genre from the folks at Variance Films. The film runs 1:41 minutes and is available this week as a digital download on iTunes and also in select movie theaters. Video Games The Movie has some big names attached to it like Zach Braff, Cliff Bleszinski and David Perry as both producers and interview subjects along with Wil Wheaton, Nolan Bushnell, Reggie Fils-Aime, Chris Hardwick and many more interviewed on camera and features the voice of Sean Astin as the narrator.

The opening of Video Games The Movie is an elaborate montage of video games throughout the years – in fact the entire movie has a great array of graphics and gaming clips to delight the visual senses. Some of the subjects touched upon are things like the 'great debate' on who was the first person to create a video game – a conversation that generally revolves around M.I.T. scientists, Ralph H. Baer and Nolan Bushnell. More topics include the 'rise and fall' of the home gaming industry in the early 1980s and the now-debunked rumors of the E.T. Atari 2600 burial of cartridges.

Most of the talking head interviews are well done with style and good sound production. As a viewer you can see that the production team behind this documentary was given a great amount of access and time to the people being interviewed. There is a good amount of stock/archive footage from early video game commercials which was edited into the movie in a finely crafted way overlapping interviews and as sort of a 'buffer' between the serious stuff and whacky throwback to crazy early game commercials.

Overall Video Games The Movie is a finely crafted edu-tainment docu-movie. We're not quite sure if the target audience is meant to be for people learning about the history of video games or for those already familiar with it looking to reminisce on the early days of gaming. If you came looking for Zach Braff then you may be disappointed as his soundbites are few and far between however if you are a fan of Cliff Bleszinski talking then you'll be in for a treat as he holds the most screen time along with Wil Wheaton. It was a treat to see many familiar faces once again on camera talking about the video game industry – many of whom we have interviewed over the years here on COIN-OP TV as well.

On the one hand, I love the film's concepts fine. Video games are an incredible medium (one that outshines even cinema) with such fascinating history behind them, and the evolution of the gaming business and community on screen is quite wonderful. It says something about what a great artform it is that it brings so many people from different walks of life together, and even goes so far as to create lasting friendships and marriages. We may not realize, but sometimes, those seemingly insignificant connections we have create all the difference in the world.

However, that's the extant of the film's great qualities, and the overall film is not as interesting, or too engaging to the uninitiated. The film is built firmly on nostalgia and fond recognizability, especially during frequent and awkward montages, and something like that can't sustain an entire film. It wants to show us a comprehensive history of video gaming culture, but suffers from disjointed time jumps, and the fact that the film constantly throws interesting facts at us, yet seldom does it ever expand on them. It practically rushes through the crash of 1983 in maybe three minutes, and glosses over evolutions like the early rise of third-party developers and the indie gaming scene (Although, Indie Game: The Movie provides a much more expansive detailing of that very subject). There's so much potential in this film that it sadly never realizes. I realize there has to be a point where you have to make tough choices of what to show, but it really does just fall into an "Aren't video games great" showcase.

If you're looking for a nostalgic kickback, you should enjoy yourself fine, but if you want a much more comprehensive rundown of video gaming history, you'd be better suited reading various books, or watching Machinima's "All Your History Are Belong To Us" series of YouTube videos.