Trailer Park: Pixels

In which I discuss the latest movie trailers.

Although I had never even heard of Pixels before Becky brought it to my attention, the idea was just ridiculous enough to work.  When aliens mistake video games launched into space as an act of war, they retaliate against the Earth with weapons based on the classic arcade games of the 80s.  All that we've had to go off of until now was that premise and a series of exquisite promotional posters depicting Pac Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong destroying famous landmarks across the globe.  Today, however, we got a much better idea of what's hitting theaters in June.

I have absolutely no idea why, but it never once crossed my mind to look up the film's cast.  Even when I was on IMDB looking up the plot synopsis and release date, I somehow blanked on scrolling down to see who was in the movie.  This is why when the trailer made it look like the latest in the tired retread of slapstick, Gen X man-child driven, star-studded comedies, I was taken completely by surprise.

Pixels stars Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith, Josh Gad and, weirdest of all, Peter Dinklage.  They and the rest of the cast re-enact the classic NES games like some apocalyptic version of Legend of Hidden Temple: racing around in Pink, Orange, Red and Blue race cars, because "the only way to take down Pac Man is with ghosts," jumping over pixelated barrels and shooting upwards at invading space ships with Men in Black-styled blasters.

So the cast has me more than a little downcast from its otherwise hilarious premise, but then again, I was once told that I "hate all comedies," so that alone might not be enough to write the movie off for.  Toru Iwatani's cameo - where he knows that Pac Man is not a villain because he is son "son" is absolutely hilarious and is worth the price of admission alone.

The problem is that like most comedies, the best jokes look like they've been crammed into the trailer in order to sell tickets.  I'm still holding out hope that this will not prove to be the case, however, since all of the trailer's jokes seemed to be directed purely at the absurdity of having Pac Man as bad guy.  Hopefully there's enough jokes left over for the remaining games to keep it from feeling like we could have just watched the trailer on repeat for 90 minutes instead of shelling out $10 a person.

So despite my tempered expectations, I'm still looking forward to Pixels and will be there to see it first hand opening weekend.  Hopefully the film won't go the Tomorrowland route and give us an unnecessary second trailer when the first one proved to be sufficient to keep my interest in it.

So are you looking forward to Pixels after seeing the trailer?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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