'Tetris' review: Falling blocks, diminishing returns

It would be tough to make a straightforward movie out of "Tetris." (Who would play the squiggly block?) So "Tetris" instead covers the terse contract negotiations, the double crosses and the general Cold War chilliness that led to the game with the falling blocks becoming a worldwide sensation.

"Tetris" is a great game, a certified classic. But those terse contract negotiations, ahh, they're just not as fun as playing "Tetris." And as much as screenwriter Noah Pink and "Stan & Ollie" director Jon S. Baird try to bring excitement and intrigue to the story of the game's rights, "Tetris" is muddled by a confusing storyline, its sense of repetition and a lack of emotional investment in its characters. Sometimes it's just not that enlightening to see how the sausage is made. (Or how the game arrived in your hands, as it were.)

Taron Egerton plays Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer who comes across a version of "Tetris" at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 1988. He describes it as "the perfect game," a poetic balance of math and art. Where you see falling blocks, he saw dollar signs.

"Tetris" was developed in the USSR by Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov), and Henk scrambles to secure the rights to the game for release. It's not that easy. There are tiers of rights to iron out — arcade, home gaming, computer, etc. — and several players involved, a tangled web of personalities including reps from various software companies, billionaire fraudsters and more. The fact that Russia is involved further complicates matters, as does Nintendo's pending launch of the handheld Game Boy system, meaning the game's reach could suddenly, potentially be seismic.

All these factors collide and Pink's script essentially becomes "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" set in the video game world, and no less intricate. Rights trade hands, this player screws that player, the Russian government flexes its might, and as the table is constantly resetting itself, it becomes difficult to keep it all straight. Or to care: we know the ending — "Tetris" is released, and it's a smash — and Egerton's character isn't interesting or intriguing enough that we're concerned whether he's the one who brings it to us, let alone how his home life pans out or if he lands a big check.

Director Baird occasionally drops "Tetris" pieces or inserts animated 8-bit elements into the frame, because otherwise the movie is a lot of drab interiors and conversations about rights, contracts and business ethics. It's not enough to lift the movie out of its structural doldrums. You know when you're playing "Tetris" and you perfectly line up a straight piece and it drops in and completely clears the board? That's what "Tetris" needs: a hard reset.

'Tetris'

GRADE: C

Rated R: for language

Running time: 117 minutes

On Apple TV+

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama