# How do you think the Tetris movie will stack up? \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013 "2014-09-30T21:30:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/21 "2014-10-02T18:57:35Z")
Didn’t penny arcade mock ridiculous video game adaptations years ago with a Tetris movie poster? It definitely sounds familiar. ETA: [Yup](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/01/24/why-the-hell-not) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/22 "2014-10-02T19:00:05Z")
As to the movie _Battleship_, Taylor Kitsch starred in two big-budget movies that year. _Battleship_ was one. The other was _John Carter_, compared to which _Battleship_ was OK. (Faint praise, I know.) And honestly, I didn’t really think about the board game while watching the movie. So they managed to have the movie stand on its own merits. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/23 "2014-10-02T21:00:30Z")
I forgot to point out this [hilarious McSweeney’s piece](http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/excerpts-from-william-shakespeares-battleship), which I usually do when the _Battleship_ movie is mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/24 "2014-10-02T21:40:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > To be honest, Battleship was not awful. I was about to say that, I thought the Battleship movie had some silly Hollywoodisms but overall was pretty frikken good, it kept me thoroughly entertained for a couple of hours and was a lot more memorable than the generally more critically acclaimed sci-fi invasion movie of the same time, ‘Battle: Los Angeles’. I also thought ‘Skyline’ was a lot better than I was led to expect. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/25 "2014-10-02T22:34:26Z")
I’ll wait for Asylum’s version, _Bloxeed_. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/26 "2014-10-02T22:46:30Z")
> [@Baine](#): > > THE PRESIDENT: We’re doomed. Even our most powerful bombs won’t make a dent in these unstoppable blocks of death. > > YOUNG SCIENTIST: We’re going about this all wrong! If we just stack the blocks together with no gaps, they’ll disappear on their own! > > THE PRESIDENT: You want to fight the blocks with more blocks? That’s just crazy enough to work! Say kid, where did you ever get an idea like that? > > YOUNG SCIENTIST: Well, when I was a kid it seemed like I was always having trouble … you know … _fitting in._ Make that scientist a sexy blonde with glasses, and you just wrote a Michael Bay movie. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/27 "2014-10-02T22:59:31Z")
I highly doubt it will come up in the movie (if there is one- an idea this stupid is something I will refuse to believe is real even if I end up watching it), but there’s actually an interesting social angle to Tetris. Think about it: only a few years after the Crash of '83 essentially kills the market (for a while, anyway), we get this game that comes from Evil Empire, and here’s how I imagine the sales pitch: “Blocks! Blocks are falling from the sky! Quickly, we must arrange them into complete lines so they disappear!” “Why?” “FOR MOTHER RUSSIA!” And the reaction of the public was to shrug and shake their heads, rather than having a widespread screaming moral panic about Communist propaganda. I don’t know how much Soviet software the US got in those days, but I’m willing to bet it wasn’t much. I do suspect, however (I was quite young at the time), that the knowledge of ‘Hey, Russian video game makers are pretty weird, too’ helped (or at least helped illustrate) the social belief that these people aren’t so different from us, after all. There’s probably a good story there, though I will admit that possibly the only thing more Bwuh?-inducing than a movie of Tetris is a movie _starring_ Tetris. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/28 "2014-10-03T00:55:36Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Mortal Kombat was one of the better video game adaptations. It’s not Shakespeare or anything but it was entertaining at least. Yes. Great special effects for the time, and the soundtrack was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013/29 "2014-10-03T19:56:10Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > And the reaction of the public was to shrug and shake their heads, rather than having a widespread screaming moral panic about Communist propaganda. I don’t know how much Soviet software the US got in those days, but I’m willing to bet it wasn’t much. I do suspect, however (I was quite young at the time), that the knowledge of ‘Hey, Russian video game makers are pretty weird, too’ helped (or at least helped illustrate) the social belief that these people aren’t so different from us, after all. There’s probably a good story there, though I will admit that possibly the only thing more Bwuh?-inducing than a movie of Tetris is a movie _starring_ Tetris. Tetris’s history IS rather fascinating stuff. Before G4 went to pot they had a documentary series, [their Tetris special being especially fascinating.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51TSBak0ds) The story of The Tetris Company co-founder [Vladimir Pokhilko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Pokhilko) is particularly tragic: [QUOTE=Pokhilko] “I’ve been eaten alive. Vladimir. Just remember that I am exist. The davil.” [/QUOTE] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-think-the-tetris-movie-will-stack-up-edited-title/700013.md?page=1)