A Brief History of Hideo Kojima’s Passive-Aggressive Movie Reviews
Gaming legend Hideo Kojima loves to wax lyrical about the new movies he's seen, but when he chooses not to, it speaks volumes.
Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima loves cinema. The legendary Japanese game designer, who says his body is 70% made of movies, is known for posting about upcoming releases and his reactions to current ones on social media. Less a critic than an observer, Kojima’s reviews have become required reading, not so much for his comments, but for their perceived depth.
When posting about movies that he really likes, Kojima will happily write a lengthy, thoughtful mini-essay on their themes or visuals. For those he doesn’t care for, a minimal post awaits. Sometimes, this simply means saying he saw a film without elaboration, but he’s been reporting his thoughts online for long enough that the latter has accidentally become shorthand for “movie bad.”
Kojima might prefer not to post negative remarks about other people’s art. That doesn’t change the perception that a post without depth can now come across as passive-aggressive to his fans, bringing a little anguish to those who loved the movie in question or were looking forward to seeing it.
Take the recent Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, which Kojima described as “great”, adding “Within the absurdity of this game, the youths help each other, understand one another, reflect on their past, and come to realize the ‘path’ that stretches toward tomorrow. Dropping out isn’t just the end of one person—it’s passing the baton and entrusting their ‘will’ to the winners. It’s a meta, philosophical film about friendship and growth and also a declaration of war against the adults.”
Now compare that to his famously brief post about the highly anticipated Marvel movie between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame: “Saw Captain Marvel.” Or, there’s his comment about 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: “Went to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
There are plenty more. He also “saw Madame Web at the theater”, “watched 65 since Adam Driver and the dinosaur are starring”, and “Finally got to see” X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but had no further comments on any of them. Since all those movies were divisive at best and critically panned at worst, Kojima’s short remarks spoke volumes and showed a commitment to the bit for his fans.
However, all this seems like bad news for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery in terms of a Kojima stamp of approval. The latest Rian Johnson flick got a dreaded “watched” from Kojima this month, and the reactions were swift.
“I know this means he hated it but for those curious it really was the best one in the Knives Out series so far,” responded one person over on X, while several simply posted “uh oh”, knowing this might be a clear thumbs down from Kojima.
It’s possible that Kojima will have more to say about the movie, which marks a more philosophical shift in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy. But for now, fans of Kojima’s movie reviews must learn to live with the possibility that Wake Up Dead Man might have been another Madame Web-level disappointment for him.