A retrospective on the series of matches played between world chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, IBM's specially-developed thinking machine. Both sides come off as snide and arrogant, obsessively self-absorbed. Kasparov, whose perspective is the driver for most of the documentary, makes a few sound observations about the shroud of secrecy that surrounded the machine during their fateful second meeting, but ultimately seems most interested in making excuses for his loss than sniffing any deeper. IBM, on the other hand, used the encounter as a highly successful publicity stunt and, having achieved their ultimate goal of a victory against the best in the world, promptly closed up shop without ever offering so much as a rematch.
The filmmakers do a questionable job of remaining unbiased, allowing each party to share their opinions without obstruction, but ultimately spending most of their effort focused on Kasparov's wild conspiracy theories. They also, puzzlingly, give away the ending no less than three times over the course of the picture, effectively killing the drama of the situation. As a result, the documentary never builds up a head of steam and winds up as nothing more than a straight, bland, historical record that lacks both a resolution and a truly appealing central figure.
Review by drqshadowBlockedParent2020-02-06T19:36:45Z
A retrospective on the series of matches played between world chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, IBM's specially-developed thinking machine. Both sides come off as snide and arrogant, obsessively self-absorbed. Kasparov, whose perspective is the driver for most of the documentary, makes a few sound observations about the shroud of secrecy that surrounded the machine during their fateful second meeting, but ultimately seems most interested in making excuses for his loss than sniffing any deeper. IBM, on the other hand, used the encounter as a highly successful publicity stunt and, having achieved their ultimate goal of a victory against the best in the world, promptly closed up shop without ever offering so much as a rematch.
The filmmakers do a questionable job of remaining unbiased, allowing each party to share their opinions without obstruction, but ultimately spending most of their effort focused on Kasparov's wild conspiracy theories. They also, puzzlingly, give away the ending no less than three times over the course of the picture, effectively killing the drama of the situation. As a result, the documentary never builds up a head of steam and winds up as nothing more than a straight, bland, historical record that lacks both a resolution and a truly appealing central figure.