There is no propaganda in theStar Warsmovies.
You dont see posters devoted to praising Emperor Palpatines benign leadership.
You dont see adverts or bill board posters positioning Darth Vader as a wheezing man of the people.
So why does this lengthy, colourful chronology feel so unsatisfying?
This simple answer, perhaps, is that its so painfully lacking in depth and analysis.
The rise and precipitous fall of Atari.
The copies ofE.T.buried in the dessert.
The Nintendo Entertainment System.
And so on, and so on.
Whats most interesting about the documentary is that it raises some pertinent and quite troubling questions almost by accident.
Theres something eerily on-message and corporate-approved about this statement.
How else do you explain that strange collection of words quoted above?
Its the kind of talk that only makes sense in the context of a PowerPoint presentation.
Of course, major companies have long recognised the lucrative power of video games.
A license to print money.
The jargon-filled utterances of that games designer in 2013 arguably began here.
In fact, the documentarys narrow depiction of the present-day games scene is oddly disquieting.
It offers up an alternate reality of aggressive hype and fervent fan devotion.
It still needs different, diverse figures who can twist the medium into new and unexpected shapes.
It took years to make, but emerged as a broken, disappointing mess.
The designer of the infamousE.T.
Carol Shaw, Kellee Santiago and Rhianna Pratchett have each blazed a trail in a male-dominated medium.
What does the growth of videogames look like to those people?
How have they seen the industry move and change?
What do they foresee in its future?
Video Games: The Movieis available to stream now from itswebsite.
