felipepepe Reviews

Gameplay (2014)

Best gaming documentary out there

[9/10 · 23 April 2015]

I have a big issue with most gaming documentaries: they feel like propaganda.

It's usually the same core story: Atari -> The 1983 Crash -> Nintendo -> Doom -> PlayStation -> Xbox; then by followed by awkward self-promotion, about how games are culture, how they bring people together, how cool celebrity X likes games, how they make a lot of money, how they don't promote violence at all... It all comes across as a giant advertisement for the industry - a quite self-conscious and insecure industry.

Not here. Gameplay: The Story of the Video game Revolution covers not only the console generations, but the arcades, the computers, the social gaming, and - perhaps more interesting - the business behind everything.

You will learn about the groundbreaking games, the technological revolutions and the visionaries, but also about the clever and dumb business decisions, the lawsuits, the shady practices, the criticisms of gaming, its darker sides... all presented through stylish 3D animations, amusing historical footage and a solid, well-written narration.

Unlike other gaming documentaries, Gameplay isn't here to confirm what you know and make you feel awesome for being a gamer. Over its 90 minutes, this documentary will show you things you never heard about, tell you some hard truths and make you think. I suspect this is the reason why it got so little promotion within the gaming press.

My only complaint is that it could have more: longer run-time, more interviewees, more stories of pioneers like Roberta Willians, EA, the Amiga, etc...

But that's a rather unfair criticism. As it stands, Gameplay is already miles ahead of any other game documentary.

That's It (2008)

Closer to "Malhação" than Kevin Smith...

[4/10 · 26 April 2010]

The film well is directed and bold for Brazilian standards, although could be more daring, but the script is weak, an attempt to create a Brazilian "Clerks".

The characters are ambulant clichés, without inspiration, and no personality, changing with the necessity of the director to show some emotion or feeling. Any another character besides the two main ones simply shouldn't exist… they only interrupt the narrative in a tiring and boring way.

But the film really loses with its pop references. They are pathetic, out of context, and extremely dated (the joke of the Dick Dastardly - Dick Vigarista - must have 20 years).

There was no effort in fusing the references with the script, they are just tossed in, as a "Top 10 Cliché Nerd Jokes" in a internet forum. And these jokes have been around for years… simply throwing them in a film script is to offend the viewer.

My guess is that the movie was only praised by older people (that doesn't know these jokes) and by die-hard nerds (that went "OMG, a Transformers joke!!!LOL").

The ending just show how hollow the characters are. Since they appear to have no constant personality, is impossible to figure out what the ending was supposed to mean. And it was done way better by other movies.

Although brave, the attempt to "portray a generation" , as the movie was sold, its only a weak, "wannabe-cult" version of "Malhação" (brazilian long-running soup-opera about college years).