in Gaming, Movies

Adam Sandler, Kevin James Battle Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Others in ‘Pixels’ Movie Trailer

Nerd culture has just been given its greatest gift. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Michelle Monaghan will battle purposely pixelated CG versions of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and more in the summer blockbuster “Pixels”. In the past, video game movies have been hit or miss, but this concept has a certain freshness to it. And by freshness, I mean, it’s basically Transformers meets the Avengers meets Wreck-It-Ralph meets every disaster movie set in New York City. Even so, it promises Adam Sandler and Kevin James vs. a giant Pac-Man and Donkey Kong with explosive special effects (well, as best as they could have done with 80’s games), and surprisingly so, it looks pretty great.

If you’re unable to watch the trailer, here’s a quick breakdown. First, they set the stage for a sci-fi story by reminding the viewer that NASA sent time capsules into space in 1982 on the outside chance that intelligent life would someday find it and communicate back with us.

Insert cool space shot here to show that there's a real explanation behind this movie.
Insert cool space shot here to show that there’s a real explanation behind this movie.

As the story so often goes, aliens do in fact find the capsule and decide to check us out. Unfortunately for civilization as we know it, these aliens are actually real life Space Invaders from the 1978 Atari classic video game “Space Invaders”.

Humanity has finally met its' match with these Space Invaders.
Humanity has finally met its match with these Space Invaders.

Inside these poor quality pixelized space ships are equally pixelized classic videogame characters, all set on destroying the earth.

This doesn't remind you of every other summer movie that has come out in the past decade at all, does it?
This doesn’t remind you of every other summer movie that has come out in the past decade at all, does it?

Pac-Man makes the first appearance, chomping away at everything in his path.

Pac-Man wreaking havoc on a firetruck.
Pac-Man wreaking havoc on a firetruck.

Our heroes are introduced as they look up and see a familiar red scaffolding. Atop it stands Donkey Kong, of course, and he appears to have with him an unlimited supply of pixelated barrels.

Our heroes, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Michelle Monaghan.
Our heroes, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Michelle Monaghan.
Donkey Kong prepares to hurl barrels at our heroes
Donkey Kong prepares to hurl barrels at our heroes

As the action progresses, many other 70’s and 80’s videogames are referenced. It’s not clear how big each of their presences in the film will be, but they’re there.

Centipede appears to have made the cut.
Centipede appears to have made the cut.

But how do you battle a giant Pac-Man hellbent on destroying the city? With mini-cooper “ghosts” of course.

Our heroes must battle Pac-Man with "ghosts", named after the classic Pacman ghosts of course.
Our heroes must battle Pacman with “ghosts”, named after the classic Pacman ghosts of course.

And suddenly Peter Dinklage shows up. This movie is complete now.

Just when you thought this movie's awesome factor couldn't be any higher, Peter Dinklage appears as a driver of one of the Pac-Mman ghost mini-coopers.
Just when you thought this movie’s awesome factor couldn’t be any higher, Peter Dinklage appears as a driver of one of the Pac-Man ghost mini-coopers.

For those of you who aren’t willing to watch the trailer more than once, you should probably be made aware of the fact that if you pause it at 1:38, a secret message flashes for a frame or so.

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Some sort of unlockable secret is hidden in the trailer on frame 1:38.
Some sort of unlockable secret is hidden in the trailer on frame 1:38.

What do you think? Is this movie going to be on your must-see list this summer? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by Andrew Fischer

Andrew Fischer is the Head Writer and Editor-in-Chief of PopMalt. He is an avid follower of all things pop and Internet culture, and works as Creative Director at NURV, a boutique creative multimedia and digital marketing company. He is also the founder of The Jericho Joe.


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