Review of Micro Men

Micro Men (2009 TV Movie)
7/10
Not without flaws
8 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This was a generally enjoyable watch and I'm grateful that anyone would make a programme on such a "niche" topic, however it was not without flaws. For a start, as has been mentioned by other reviewers, Sir Clive is painted as borderline psychotic with serious anger management problems, whereas Curry is some kind of super-good Luke Skywalker of the computing world. I'm sure it can't have been as clear-cut as this. It's also true that Alexander Armstrong's acting is very mannered and feels like something out of a comedy sketch show, while Martin Freeman gets to act much more naturally.

The second problem is really just an anachronism caused by poor library footage placement. At the computer fair/exhibition we see the team telling reporters about the capabilities of the new Acorn Atom, and we also see Clive Sinclair talking to the Sinclair User journalist about issues to do with the "new" ram pack for the ZX81. Even leaving aside whether these two events happened at the same computer fair, since blah blah artistic license etc., there are two pieces of library footage shown, as if they are taking place at the same event. The first piece of film shows some schoolboys using some computer that I can't identify from the clip, playing a game, then the next clip shows a man trying out an Amstrad CPC464. This computer wasn't introduced until much later: 1984 in fact and is really out of place. I don't know about other people but it caused me anguish seeing it.
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