There’s ‘bad’, and then there’s ‘so bad it’s good’, where the lack of quality morphs something into being entertaining for a whole other set 
of reasons. Whenever there’s a concensus surrounding something being awful, the morbid curiosity within us always wonders if we’ll find it to be the latter instead of the former. This is a dangerous game, gambling with time of your life you’ll never get back in the hopes that something will actually have a modicum of quality to it. That’s where Screen Savers comes in – we wade through the bad stuff to find the diamond in the rough so you don’t have to.
With the critical assault it’s been receiving, Pixels is being taken to task this week. An Adam Sandler and Kevin James vehicle about invading aliens and ’80s arcade games and that childhood fantasy of turning playing video games into a meaningful life skill and stuff, because that’s still a conversation we should be having, apparently.
What’s It About?
Invading aliens and ’80s arcade games and that childhood fantasy of turning playing video games into a meaningful life skill. No, seriously, that’s about it. Adam Sandler is, as usual, a down and out guy, this time named Sam Brenner who is gently trucking through working a menial job. His glory days as a world class arcade game player are firmly behind him as he engages in the humdrum existence of being a middle-aged, divorced man who installs home entertainment systems. His buddy’s the president, played by Kevin James (of course Kevin 
James is the president), who, despite not being able to read, has managed to become one of the most powerful men in the world and still hangs out with Sandler‘s Brenner in bars.
The voice of Olaf from Frozen, Josh Gad is the most socially awkward of the group, while Michelle Monaghan is the obligatory love interest/scientist and Games of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage is an over-confident gaming expert who beat Sandler‘s character to first place back in the day. Together, they face off against an alien invasion that mistook a transmission sent in the ’80s containing classic arcade games as a sign of war. The aliens emulate the arcade games in their invasion strategy, so the likes of Centipede and Pac-Man begin descending and wreaking havoc and it’s up to this small, disparate team of former gamers to save the world.
It sounds like fun, but yet, it isn’t, at least not as much as it thinks it is.
Is It Really Bad?
Honestly, yes and no. It is the hot mess it both looks and sounds like. Adam Sandler hasn’t made a good film in years and with his recent controversies concerning his Netflix movies, him taking on videogames in film was never going to end well. Videogames have a real tenuous relationship with movies and a Sandler/James comedy wasn’t going to solve that problem, however, they do guarantee a healthy budget for an interesting premise.
Pixels is based on an animated short from 2010 which had more or less the same idea. That short, made by Patrick Jean, is something quite remarkable and as a basis for a full movie is basically rock solid for a loving ode to the foundation of videogames as we know. The execution is where it falls flat. There’s too much emphasis on the characters, too much time given to jokes and routines that border between being unfunny and outright offensive. The central gag for each character is some variation on the misunderstood nerd trope – y’know, that nerd and geeks are just socially awkard heroes in disguise and that it’s the jock-ruled world that’s at fault. This is fine and dandy as a joke, if the execution wasn’t, depending on the instance, sexist, homophobic or flat out dumb if not all three at once.
Michelle Monaghan‘s professor is the main informant of the film, yet every scene in which she demonstrates how smart she is is railroaded by a joke by one of the male characters, or her demonstrating affection for Brenner. I mean, of course Sandler is going to have the big love story, but they could at least try so that it isn’t her falling into his arms for basically no reason. Josh Gad‘s character, though, the neurotic,
conspiracy obsessed, meant-to-be kind of cute doesn’t know any better creep is the biggest offense.
Every scene in which he’s on-screen with anyone else he does or says something that just had me wondering why I was bothering to continue watching. He has a complete obsession with a female videogame character, and I mean character singular, but yet exudes the standard closeted gay joke when interacting with military personnel. It’s like the script couldn’t decide what kind of sexually repressed he is, so he’s every kind of sexually repressed. Not to mention early on in the first act he admits to spying on women and wanting to smell them.
But, and I realize a but at this stage is pretty useless, but! The action scenes are stellar. The special effects are on point and the sequences well designed and choreographed. Honestly, I had fun and actually, openly laughed at a couple of the more catastrophic situations. The range of games referenced is actually pretty wide, too, so it’s nice to see the breadth of the gaming history seen.
Does that forgive the other stuff? Not by a long shot, but the film isn’t a complete waste. It’s just completely insulting to nerd culture, radically out of touch with the evolution of the gaming audience, sexist, homophobic, stereotypical in all the wrong ways and gave Kevin James and Adam Sandler money. So, y’know, good with the bad.
What Videogame Movies Should I Watch Instead?
Super Mario Bros., eXistenZ, Indie Game: The Movie (though not all in one sitting, for your own sanity!)
….. Nah, it’s not worth it, honestly….
