When I explained to Sarah that it was a documentary about middle aged guys who compete to be the top scorer of Donkey Kong, she wasn’t too exited about seeing it.
“How about we see Nanny Diaries instead?”
“Sorry, you don’t get it. I’m going to see this movie and if you want to join me you can.”
“It sounds stupid.”
“I’m still seeing it. You can go see Mr. Bean with your dad and Samantha.”
“That looks worse!”
Even my husband was surprised that I wanted to see a documentary about middle aged geeks playing video games. The next day:
“Were you serious about going to see that movie?”
“Well, yeah!”
“OK, I guess I’m seeing Mr. Bean with Samantha.”
I picked Sarah up from school and we went to dinner and then walked around Princeton. It was fun though I was shocked to see how many stores were empty on Nassau Street. I was wondering if there was a weird local dip in the economy or the rents had been raised too much but it turns out that some of the stores had moved and the new stores hadn’t opened yet (Princeton is usually quite busy so I was surprised that there would be any problems in the economy).
The main theme of the movie was the battle between the evil current champion and the nice challenger. It’s definitely a Rocky-type movie, they even included “The Eye of the Tiger” which made me laugh because preparing for the fight for the challenger meant sitting in front a video arcade machine and playing for hours at a time. It was amusing but not awe-inspiring or motivational. Those interviewed in the movie made several attempts to equate their competition with sports but it just sounded so ludicrous when you see these guys playing video games while sitting on their hindquarters for hours.
The movie was amusing but it left you wondering why in the world these people care so much about being number one at something that is a fad that’s well pass it’s prime and best left to the kids. The movie did make the competition interesting and the underdog aspect of it did make you root for the challenger. It was well directed and I wasn’t bored by it. But ultimately you have to wonder if the gamers will come to regret how much of their life was wasted playing video games.
I think that the haiku Sarah and I (mostly Sarah) came up with captures the essence of the movie:
A pointless journey
the geeks embarked with quarters
what a waste of time!