Monday 28 September 2015

Review: Pixels (2015)

Gamer nerds, unite! Okay, that was a little lame, sorry. But seriously, I’m all in for a movie that celebrates being a gamer. It’s just taken me a while to get round to watching this one. When I first saw the trailer for Pixels, I though, this is one of those movies that’s going to be terrible, but a little bit awesome at the same time. As the terrible reviews flooded in, my enthusiasm died a little, but I still wanted to give it a chance.  I hadn't read any reviews so I had no idea what to expect....

pixels-movie-review-2015

Pixels (2015) starts off in the summer of 1982, and when a new arcade opens up in town, friends Brenner (Adam Sandler) and Cooper (Kevin James) race over to master the games. Whilst there they meet Ludlow (Josh Gad) who’s in love with Lady Lisa, the main star of the game Dojo Quest. After working his way through the ranks, Brenner goes head to head with Eddie (Peter Dinklage) in a game of Donkey Kong. The host announces that footage of the competition will be sent into space by NASA, and consequently, an alien race treats the footage as a declaration of war, and use video games to attack Earth.

It’s a pretty silly plot, there’s no moving around that one, but it’s a fun one at the very least! I would class myself as an Adam Sandler fan, but I enjoyed this a lot more than the last movies I saw of his, both Grown Ups. Admittedly, I think I’m just a few years too young to fully appreciate Pixels. I played Pacman and Donkey Kong, but remastered versions on early generation games consoles, and they were the only game characters I actually recognised. There’s definitely a lot of nostalgia here for 80’s gamers though!  I recognised more from watching Wreck it Ralph than from actual video games (I was more of a Barbie kid!!).  I will readily admit that I am a huge Adam Sandler fan and I to disagree with Allie on this one because Grown Ups (the first one) was awesome and this didn't even come into the same league (it was pretty much on par with Grown Ups 2 - Grown Ups 2 was horrendous, at least Pixels had a plot!).

pixels-adam-sandler-kevin-james

The visuals were a pretty sight to see, and I reckon they would only be better on the big screen. The final Donkey Kong scene was nothing short of awesome, and even though the trailer already showed it, I loved the idea of using coloured Mini Cooper’s for Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde!  Agreed, the visuals were amazing and the Mini Coopers were great (but how did they know they were going to need them -just another of the little niggles that bothered me throughout!)

As much as I enjoyed this, it certainly wasn’t without it’s flaws. I lost interest in the plot several times, and a few of the characters got on my nerves a little. Why did Peter Dinklage have to put on a ‘douchebag’ voice throughout the entire movie? It just wasn’t necessary. Also, I realise the soundtrack was from the 80’s but the whole Centipede battle scene would have been 100x more awesome if it was backed by Knife Party’s Centipede. Look it up on YouTube, and please internet, make this happen for me. Oh, and spoiler alert, but if you’re going to cast Sean Bean in your movie, in a military role no less, kill him off! Wasted opportunity there, Sandler. YES! I know this film was completely unrealistic and unbelievable but I could not get my head around Kevin James being President, it was so irritating.

All in all, I was really disappointed, I wanted to love it but I just didn't!  It pushed the unrealistic too far and wasn't even remotely funny....at all! (that's hard for me to say about a Sandler film)

pixels-pacman-mini-coopers

Not the best movie out there by a long shot, but give me Adam Sandler over James Franco any day! 

Disappointed in Mr Sandler...sort it out man!






7 comments:

  1. I'm still going to see this, but I hate that reviews are so terrible. Such a shame since I love the trailer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think it's a terrible movie by a long shot, but I can see why the critics would slate it. Give it a go! :)
      - Allie

      Delete
  2. I can't Jenna...I can't...you're a HUGE fan of Sandler? WHY?!?!?!?!

    LOL...I feel the need to see this eventually, mostly because it's about videogames and I'm a dude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That right there is the reason to watch this! I claim dudette instead though, ha :)
      - Allie

      Delete
  3. I'm a Sandler fan too. And I thought this was going to be a huge one for him, but it was not good. A big wasted opportunity.

    (and I recognized stuff from Wreck-It-Ralph too!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm still going to see this some day, even though I heard it's terrible. Now at least I know what to expect. Good review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, don't let us put you off. I still enjoyed it, regardless! :)
      - Allie

      Delete