Movie Monday: King of Kong

I watched bits and pieces of a number of movies over the last week, but only one all the way through. Sadly, it was a movie that I had already watched earlier this year. Happily, it was a good one that I was glad to give a second viewing.

The King of Kong is a documentary about Steve Wiebe, a man who is very good at Donkey Kong, and subsequently thinks that he can get the world record high score. The only thing standing in his way is the current record holder, Billy Mitchell. The documentary plays out almost unbelievably with heroes and villains, twists and turns, and a climactic showdown (sort of). What makes it so good is that with all of these things, you have you constantly remind yourself that these are real people and not just a made up story.

I know that a lot of the drama built into the movie is derived from smart editing, but it's so well put together that both times I've watched it, I feel myself being emotionally manipulated so perfectly that I wind up not caring and throwing everything I have behind Steve Wiebe.

The good thing about it is that even people who don't care about video games (like my wife and her sister), they both completely enjoyed the movie and got caught up in it as much as me. Rumor has it that they are already working on a scripted adaptation of the movie, and while I'm sure I'll be out to see it, I don't think it will be able to capture everything in this documentary.