In an attempt to cash in on the successful video game industry, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has brought us “Pixels,” a feature adaptation of a short film by Patrick Jean. In “Pixels,” aliens from another world have decided to attack Earth with creations based on classic video games, after receiving a radio feed from a space probe in the 1980s and taking it as a declaration of war. In true video game fashion, they are now challenging Earth to a game and will invade the planet if they win three rounds. Sam Brenner (played by Adam Sandler) and his friend Will Cooper (Kevin James) are the only people in the world that can fight these video game themed monsters, with the help of another gaming genius, and Sam’s old rival, Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage). After much game-themed mayhem, the heroes manage to defeat the aliens, save the world, and live happily ever after.
While “Pixels” is stunning to look at and has a lot of potential with its classic video game theme, it falls far short of whatever expectations the filmmakers must have had. The story is predictable and questionable (out of all the video game players in the world, only Adam Sandler’s character can save the day?), the game characters are underused, and the ending is trite and cheesy. It’s not wholly surprising that the film has rated 18% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and just 55% liked it in the audience score. While nostalgia for old school games may get some viewers into seats, the lack of a good story will make it hard to keep them there.
Adam Sandler is still making the movies he made 15, 20 years ago. They still have bumbling idiot heroes who make dozens of mistakes but still manage to save the day, “out of your league” love interests, loveable doofus sidekicks, and an improbable premise. The only thing “Pixels” really has going for it is the source material. Unlike other video games, this movie isn’t based so much on one particular franchise but instead on a short film that featured classic game characters destroying a city. While the beautifully rendered special effects transferred over to this much longer version of the story, there wasn’t much plot to go with so the film writers made up their own. And they didn’t do a great job of it.
The failure of video game films is very different than the success of other types of adaptations, such as comic book films. Typically, comic book adaptations work so much better than video game adaptations due to the amount of story there is to base a movie on. Most comic book movies are drawing from expansive stories that have existed for decades, with fully-realized characters that populate wholly developed worlds. With video games, filmmakers are often drawing on the flimsiest of premises and the most two-dimensional of characters. Consequently, it’s very seldom that a video game movie adaptation does well at the box office. The success of the “Resident Evil” franchise (currently five films with one more on the way; earned $915 million in box office over the series) is an exception to the rule.
From the beginning, the video game inspired films that have been released were boring, weird, poorly made, or all three. “Super Mario Bros.,” released in 1993, is a great example of such a film. It bears only the slightest resemblance to its source material and tries to pad out its running time with a plot that doesn’t make sense, flat attempts at comedy, and bizarre effects. “Doom,” “Double Dragon,” “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” and “BloodRayne“ are more examples of popular video games that were turned into terrible movies (though the first “Mortal Kombat“ film is highly watchable and has a great soundtrack). If you want to see for yourself, of those except “Double Dragon” are currently floating around on Netflix, DTV, and on demand if you have cable.
“Pixels“ is a film that wants to be big and exciting and entertaining. It wants to get audiences talking about it and it wants to spawn a half dozen sequels and a long line of merchandise including toys and new video games. It stars some great actors (Peter Dinklage is fun to watch no matter what he’s in) and has some great special effects. But it is hampered down by a confusing and generic storyline, jokes that aren’t funny, and a leading man that stopped being relevant a long time ago.
– by Brittni Williams
