Director: Chris Columbus
Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James,Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Monaghan, Brian Cox, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, Pac-Man
In 1982 the world video game championships were recorded and sent into space. Sam Brenner (Sandler) was the runner-up, and it’s haunted him ever since. 30 years later, he feels like he’s wasted his potential, and while his best friend is president of the United States, he installs technology for a living. But when Earth starts getting attacked by pixelated alien beings, and receives strange messages, Brenner and his companions find out that the skills they developed as kids might now be the key to saving the world.
I was rather looking forward to Pixels. I grew up in the 90s, so I remember that arcades were still a thing, although they weren’t as much a part of my life as they were in the 80s (and I think the cultural significance of them is more American anyway) but the games featured do hold some nostalgia for me and it’s fun to see them brought to life. The effects are cool and there’s a couple of good 3D moments, although I feel more could have been done to fully embrace the pixelated nature, especially after seeing the sequence in Inside Out where the characters become 2D abstract forms.
Pixels suffers from the problem of being predictable. The subplots are generic and the overall film is formulaic. Everyone is going to know the climax of the film after watching the opening sequence. The dialog isn’t particularly sharp and while there are some funny gags there’s not a constant stream of laughter. Probably the best sequence in the film is the Pac-Man chase, but if you’ve seen the trailer you’ve seen most of the highlights of that. Speaking of the trailer, one interesting thing is that they changed a scene in it from the final film and gave the line to another character. Go see if you can spot it.
This is one of those films where I think if you grew up playing these games you’ll probably get a kick out of it. It’s not a bad film and it’s a decent, entertaining watch, there’s just not much there to set it apart from the crowd other than the fact that it features classic video games. It’s not one that I’d be rushing out to see, and if you weren’t impressed by the trailers then that’s quite indicative that you won’t like the film.
