Each Friday we will be bringing you weekend-viewing movie picks available for streaming on Netflix! From the popular to the obscure, we will browse Netflix’s Streaming library so you don’t have to, and bring you what we consider to be “Must Watch” selections!
“Video Games: The Movie” – (7.5 out of 10) – Directed by Jeremy Snead; Written by Jeremy Snead; Narrated by Sean Astin; Released July 18, 2014.
“Video Games: The Movie” delivers exactly what is promised by the title, 105 minutes of pure, concentrated, video game history and enough little tidbits for your gee-whiz file to dominate the gaming category at your local pub quiz. The documentary was produced by Zach Braff and narrated by Sean Astin doing his best Patton Oswalt impression.
The narrative begins mostly chronologically, beginning with the debate over the true father of video games. The answer seemingly varies depending on who you ask, but the documentary makes a pretty convincing case for a group of MIT students/employees in 1962 and their game “Spacewar.”
From there we move into the future. From Atari, to the NES; from the PlayStation to computer gaming and modern consoles we can see in stark reality the evolution of and progression of video games not only as a technology but as an art form.
Appearances and interviews with Zach Braff, Chris Hardwick, Wil Wheaton, Donald Faison, Ernie Cline (author of “Ready Player One”) and more, as well as industry experts offer insight into the behind the scenes world of games as well as nostalgic personal perspective. A common theme among those who grew up in the early days of gaming was the way they were captured by the concept of being able to interact with and manipulate images on the screen. Gaming took story telling from a passive experience to one that allowed for and ultimately required active participation.
I personally remember getting a Nintendo Entertainment System for my fifth birthday, it’s one of my earliest memories. I still own that console, and, on certain special days, when my feng shui is balanced and the planets aligned, it still works. The state of modern video games, with cloud storage, photo-realistic graphics, and simultaneous online multiplayer are so far beyond the dreams of that five year old kid that it would make his head spin. I never could have imagined that gaming would make it this far and because of the gradual progression over a few decades it’s easy to take it for granted.
By placing the complete history of video games into a compact narrative it makes one truly appreciate the fantastic rate at which the technology has progressed in a relatively short time.
Aside from an overarching narrative of video games, the documentary also takes some time to talk about a few important moments in their history including some pretty major snafus, specifically the “E.T.” game, (thanks a lot Atari) and the medium’s resurrection and savior Mario (thanks a lot Nintendo… for realsies).
There is no better testament to the fact that humanity was starved for digital entertainment then that our most beloved and enduring video game character is a poorly rendered mustachioed plumber.
By the time the doc gets to the end, you’ll have a proper understanding and respect for what it takes to make a game as well as for the almost magical rate at which the medium has improved. It is truly a marvel of modern technology and it seems the medium is here to stay.
Full disclosure, I had a little trouble getting through the whole thing, but only because half an hour in I really wanted to turn on my console and play something and if you ask me, that’s a success.