Eye Candy #331 - "TILT - The Battle to Save Pinball"

TILT - The Battle To Save Pinball:  The least energetic documentary I have probably ever seen. Focusing on the history of the pinball machine up to its revival during the 1970’s through the 1990’s, it pays particular attention to Williams Gaming, one of a handful of pinball machine companies, and some of the innovative games they created in the last 20 years. This film has several problems: 1.) it’s almost clinical in its approach to its subject. For a game that a segment of the country still feels very strongly about, it has an extreme lack of vitality; 2.) while it tries to be the “Who Killed The Electric Car?” for the pinball set, it comes across more as the riveting story of “Company Changes Business Model to Things That Actually Sell” (specifically video slot machines), which just isn’t that sexy of a quandary quite frankly. Sure, Williams was attempting to create content that would keep them relevant in the Video Game Age, but they just capitulated to video games to do it. What’s the message there? This is everything “The King of Kong” wasn’t. Where are the fans and why don’t they get more focus? People have a hard time relating to the plights of companies versus the plights of people. Woodchuck sez, “The King of Dull.”