In the golden era of video games, Tetris was one of the cornerstones. The film by Jon S. Baird (Filth, Stan & Ollie) captures the moment of the creation of this iconic video game and the legal battle over copyright that arose from its commercialization. Tetris (2023) is conceived in the form of a historical drama with touches of comedy. With that tone, we plunge into the 80s to witness the fortuitous birth of a game that to this day has sold more than 200 million copies and has maintained its status as one of the most important video games of all time.

Noah Pink’s (ZedCrew, The Show) script relies more on the characters than the strength of its story. That Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is the engine that drives the story. Henk is a businessman who one day sees a unique opportunity and decides to risk everything to get the deal of his life. The classic story of an underdog that will have to face multiple challenges and find himself on the brink of the abyss before succeeding. This is how Tetris moves, along conventional paths and with results that we can anticipate long before they happen.

The film has a good rhythm that is largely granted from the editing side, which is supported by graphic resources inspired by the characteristic visual elements of the 80s and 90s video games. Tetris is a product of the era of digital distribution, a film that would not have survived on traditional distribution channels. I imagine this film as one of those who would go straight to the video rental store. Now it is an original Apple TV product and is offered as a premium for subscribers.

Taron Egerton has shown that he has talent and here once again proves that he can carry a movie on his own. Charismatic and magnetic is his Henk Rogers character, his business adventure at times takes on the overtones of a spy exploit. The fact that the story mixes the political game and the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union during the legal battle that unleashed Tetris, makes the film find ground to develop the fiction that adorns the historical drama. In the same way, the film takes the opportunity to develop a parallel drama with the personal life of that Henk.

Tetris is a film that fulfills its mission, the option on the digital shelves that we are going to select, and we are going to enjoy it for two hours on the sofa at home. We would have done the same thing in 1990 but with a VHS rented in a store and having to rewind to the beginning because the previous client was not kind enough to do so.