A new 2015 movie, PIXELS, currently divides the arcade community with concerns over it's comedic value and the quality of the movie (which may impact the perceptions of arcade games negatively).
The movie centres around a home-theater installer (played by Adam Sandler) who leads a team of old-school arcade champs (Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad), called the Arcaders, to defend the planet from aliens who are basing their attacks on 1980s-era video games after receiving a time capsule from NASA in 1982 detailing Earth pop culture. They interpreted this time capsule as an act of war and retaliated in the geekiest, albeit fatal, way.
Now, personally I am pretty darn excited about this, but much of the arcade community has expressed either outright rejection or trepidation in the face of this movie. There have been complaints about the trailer already with some saying the seriousness of the music undermines the comedy of the film, or, that the plot is absurd, or, the casting is terrible, etc.
I think this may be taking the movie way too seriously, it's a feel-good-fun-time film that brings classic arcade gaming into the pop cultural spotlight. This could do good things for arcades, once more sparking what people tend to see as a dying interest from the general public.
My own opinion: I thought the trailer (which you can watch below) was pretty cool and communicated at a glance that this will undoubtedly be a comedy. Adam Sandler (although comedically tainted over the last few years from a string of box office flops) is leading a stellar comedy cast including the adorable Josh Gad (Frozen and Book of Mormon), the incredible Peter Dinklage (and if you don't think that guy is funny, you obviously have not seen his Simon Says cameo on Sesame Street), and Michelle Monaghan (think Emma Stone, but a little older). This incredible cast also includes funny-man Kevin James from The King of Queens, and Jane Krakowski, best known for her role as Jenna Maroney in 30 Rock.
[Edited]The film has also included Toru Iwatani (played by Denis Akiyama), Pacman creator, which is probably the best scene of the trailer! He does a great job and is absolutely hilarious.
The arcade games seen in the movie trailer include Pacman, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Galaga, and Pong.
All in all, I think this could be a great movie, potentially even the beginning of a comeback for Adam Sandler, but more importantly I think this could be a great boost for classic arcade games and arcades in general - similar to the boost seen after Wreck-It-Ralph. But only time will tell on that front, in the meantime I'm just going to anticipate how much I'm going to enjoy this movie.
PIXELS will hit theaters in the US on July 24, followed by an international release that includes Australia on July 30 and the UK on August 12.
