The Movie
Steve Weibe is a halfway hero. Billy Mitchell is longtime champ. When these two marquee names of the competitive classic video game universe cross paths, drama follows closely and tension builds thick like a brick wall. The humble family man and the crass confident pro are stuck in a competitive battle for the world’s top Donkey Kong score, and both will go by any number of drastic means to claim it. It’s this competition between these two elite players that propels “King of Kong’s” 79 minute run time like a runaway locomotive around the twists and turns in the track as Billy Mitchell tries to cling to his spot at the top of Donkey Kong mythos.
Steve Weibe has had the rug pulled out from himself so many times it’s hard to see how he’s standing. As a teen he was an exceptional baseball pitcher, but couldn’t deliver a win in his state finals game. He’s a skilled musician but has been screwed over with bad partnerships in recording a Christian album (more on this in the special features). He was laid off from his job at Boeing and endured a crash course 1-year masters program to become a middle school science teacher to bring in the dough. Watching the film, you see a normal, cordial, quiet family man with buckets of talent and insatiable hunger for Donkey Kong.
Competitive Videogaming Legend Billy Mitchell
Billy Mitchell has got it made. He’s been the most famous competitive classic video gamer since was a teen (I’d even heard of him before this movie. That’s famous). He owns his own hot sauce company and restaurant. He has been appointed the high status of referee from the Twin Galaxies video games world records organization, to go along with his many high score marks. Mitchell is sure of himself, suave with the hair of a Vidal Sassoon spokesperson and he spouts zen confidence boosters at every dull moment. Though the film never shows him playing the game, Mitchell sits at the top of the Donkey Kong mountain and in the way of Steve Weibe’s aspirations.
Or so it would seem. The old parable goes, “by the light of the torch there is no ugly woman,” meaning when cast in the right light you can make anything seem the way you want. The people behind “King of Kong” have drawn some heat from the gaming community since the film’s release. In many ways, how much you enjoy this movie depends solely on how you see it. If you’re a casual viewer looking for a great underdog story with enjoyable storytelling, (mostly unintentionally) hilarious characters, and an air of conflict that will conjure up memories of “Rocky” and “The Karate Kid” from days gone by, by all means watch and enjoy this movie. However, if you are intrigued by Steve Weibe and Billy Mitchell and choose to dig a little deeper (just one click to Mitchell’s Wikipedia entry isn’t too deep, right?) you’ll start to see just how thin the story runs and how tight the filmmakers had to cling to pull together the film they did.
Videogame referee Walter Day (left) looks on a Steve Weibe (right) attempts to break the Donkey Kong record score.
Some claim the film distorts the facts of the situation and shows Mitchell in a negative light. The detractors aren’t just any Internet jockeys out there. The chief whistleblower on the film is none other than the founder of Twin Galaxies, the official video game record keeping bureau referenced by the Guinness Book of World Records and featured prominently in “King of Kong,” Walter Day. Day disputs that while the film portrays Weibe as a contender hot on the trail of the hotshot Mitchell, in reality Weibe was the World Record holder for Donkey Kong for nearly three years. Weibe was simply hoping to add to his record in a live venue, not break some hallowed record in front of an arcade crowd as a prominent scene in the movie suggests. After repeated viewings I’ve come to the conclusion that the filmmakers didn’t exactly lie to the audience about the circumstances of this and many other situations, they just intentionally left out a hell of a lot of relevant information which changed the direction and narrative of the movie.
Overall, I say watch the movie and enjoy it for what it is: faux reality. It’s funny, it’s enthralling, and on the surface it is very entertaining, as well as relatively short. The story is great and you’ll be cheering on Steve Weibe, cursing Billy Mitchell and laughing at the awesome awkwardness that is the older video gaming community just like I was. Just don’t hate Billy Mitchell or come off with the wrong impression of anyone in this film. It only takes a quick edit or some generous omissions to tell a story with video that doesn’t follow the narrative of real life.
Presentation
Judging from the cameras seen following the subjects in the movie, “King of Kong” was filmed with all hand-held cameras. Though video from these kinds of cameras usually doesn’t have the same crispness and color accuracy as film stock, my attention was never jarred from the movie by the noticeable grain in the dark arcades or inaccurate tones. I don’t think anyone is going to demand Oscar-worthy cinematography from a documentary on the budget and I think the crew did very well for themselves considering the DV cameras they had to work with.
Aside from the video game shenanigans, the film has some interesting recaps that help to clue in those of us out of the video game history major. The CG graphics presented in these sequences are quite impressive and add a whole other dimension to the experience. Speaking of CG graphics, I have to say that the inventive menu structure for this disc is one of my favorites in a long time. Each menu emulates a different level from Donkey Kong and it left me with a much better impression than simply a static picture with cheesy music like most DVDs give.
Extras
If it’s extra features that draw you to a DVD, you won’t be disappointed with this one. “Kong’s” library of extra content, including outside the box features like music and art based on the 8-bit musical styling of Donkey Kong and extensive interviews with each member of the cast, could have you watching for hours after the main movie has ended. Each personality’s extra interview is much longer and reveals more about each of them that the filmmakers simply couldn’t do in the main feature’s run time. We get a more intimate and detailed look at Billy Mitchell, some more stories about Steve Weibe’s musical ventures and more self-indulgent ramblings from the nauseating “Mr. Awesome.”
Overall
If you didn’t catch this film in its first runs around the nation in theaters, now is a great time to catch up with “King of Kong” as it heads home with a vault of extras and more uncomfortably enthusiastic video gamers than your average DVD.
Overall: 8