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.
