Pixels Trailer, My Thoughts.

Recently, I got to see a trailer for a film that sounds like a lot of fun. The film? Pixels.

What is Pixels, you may ask? Well, this is a remake of a 2010 short film of the same name, albeit the story is altered. In 1982, NASA launched a time capsule into space in an attempt to establish peaceful communications with extraterrestrial life. Included in the capsule were video footage of video games of the era, like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Galaxian, and Space Invaders. However, when aliens see the footage, they end up thinking that the footage was the equivalent of saying "We're going to blow you up because we hate you because reasons", they attack the earth, in the form of the various creatures and characters for the games.

It's up to a 1980s-era gaming champion (Adam Sandler), alongside a team of retrogamers (one of them is Peter Dinklage with a mullet), to save the world using gaming skills built over thirty years.

I had to admit, I found some parts of this trailer to be pretty funny. When I saw this trailer, I was actually pretty excited to see this film. I especially liked the bit with who I thought was Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man. Turned out according to Wikipedia it was not the real Iwatani, just an actor portraying him. That makes me a little sad. Ah, well.

I think this film will definitely appeal to retrogamers young and old, as well as those who grew up during the Golden Age of Arcades. For me, much of those games are early 80s, generally before my time. However, I do have a great respect for these games, and how they helped lay the foundation for the games we all love and enjoy today, not to mention the entire gaming industry. And I will admit, I love Galaga. I thought I may have seen the bugs from Galaga, so I am especially excited for this movie (I was very happy when Galaga was given some love in The Avengers). Not to mention I have played the original Donkey Kong, thanks to owning Donkey Kong 64.

I think this film is going to be just a bit of silly fun. It's not going to be deep, or make us consider existential questions. Not every film needs to do that. I go to movies to be entertained, and I think this film will do that. Although to be honest, I don't get all the Adam Sandler hate. Yeah, his last couple movies may have flopped, but I think this one will do fine. Might even be a cult classic.