Have you ever had the chance to experience a whole afternoon in an authentic arcade? If not, then this brand new movie, “Pixels”, will give you the possibility to discover an incredible pixelated world and take part in one of the greatest battles in the history. The film was released this year, on the 24th of July, and it is directed by Chris Columbus.
The story begins in the summer of 1982. Two friends, Sam Brenner and Will Cooper, go to a new opened arcade. Even though he’s never played an arcade game before, Brenner turns out to be an excellent player. His brilliant technique and his high scores book him a place in an arcade world championship. At the event the two buddies find out that a time capsule will be launched into space (containing elements of the present culture). Brenner and Cooper also make a new friend, Ludlow Lamonsoff, an intelligent boy who happens to have a crush on Lady Lisa, the main character of the game called Dojo Quest.
Brenner manages to get through every single game. In the end he faces a tough opponent, Eddie Plant (or “Fire Blaster”), who claims to be invincible. The two gamers fight against each other in Donkey Kong. Throughout the game, Eddie tells Brenner that it’s harder to follow the pattern as long as you get to higher levels. After a few moments Brenner can’t concentrate anymore and unfortunately comes in second place.
Time passes by and the action moves forward to 2015. Brenner (Adam Sandler) works for a company, which installs tech equipment. Surprisingly enough, Cooper (Kevin James) is the President of the United States. He is usually being laughed at in mass media (because, for example, he cannot read properly).
One evening, in Guam, a military base picks up a strange signal. Some aliens based on the designs of Galaga attack the soldiers. Unfortunately all of them are defeated. Before leaving, the aliens take one of the soldiers with them.
In the meantime Brenner is installing some equipment in Violet van Patten’s house. Violet (Michelle Monaghan) is a divorced woman who lives with her son, Matty (Matt Lintz). After he finishes installing, Brenner hears Violet crying in a closet. He tries to make her feel better and listens to her problems. He thinks they’re sharing a special moment, but Violet rejects his feelings. After a while Brenner gets a call from Cooper and he is told to come to the White House as soon as possible. While heading to his friend, Brenner finds out that Violet is also going to the same place. She happens to be a Lieutenant Colonel. When Brenner arrives to the White House, Cooper shows him a video with the aliens’ attack. Both of them immediately recognize the Galaga designs. Unfortunately they don’t have a lot of clues, so their research seems to come to a dead end.
At the end of the day Brenner drives back home. Surprisingly his old friend, Ludlow (Josh Gad), is hidden in the back of his van. The two of them are happy to see each other. Ludlow explains to Brenner the reason why he has been looking for him. He knows about the Galaga attack and wants to share some secret information.
Ludlow has received an unusual message from the outer space. The aliens in the video are disguised as Madonna and Ronald Reagan, two icons from the ‘80s. The time capsule that was sent more than 30 years ago has been found. The aliens thought that the items inside of it were meant to threaten them. They want to attack Earth, using arcade games. The humans have only three rounds to fight back or it’s game over. They’ve already lost once, as the aliens have taken the soldier from Guam as a “trophy”.
Brenner and Ludlow show Cooper the video message. Soon after that the aliens attack Taj Mahal (using the game Arkanoid) and take their new trophy (an Indian man). Everyone realizes that they’re in big trouble, so they start preparing for the following battle (which is held in London).
Lots of trained soldiers are brought to the Centipede attack, but Brenner and Ludlow are the only ones who know the pattern of the game, so they take over, blasting away all the threatening creatures. Brenner shoots the last centipede and wins the game. The people receive a new message from the aliens (which are now disguised as the Fantasy Island guys). They congratulate them, give them the Duck Hunt dog as their trophy, but remind them that the alien force is still leading 2-1. The next battle is about to take place in New York.
Needing more help, Brenner, Cooper and Violet go to a prison in which Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage) got arrested for adding charges to phone bills. In exchange for his help, Eddie demands a meeting with Serena Williams or Martha Stewart and no more taxes for him to pay.
Brenner, Eddie and Ludlow are getting ready for the Pac-Man attack. They’re joined by Toru Iwatani, the creator of the game. Violet offers them four cars, which are based on the ghosts from Pac-Man. The team finds the giant yellow chomping ball roaming on the streets of New York. Professor Iwatani wants to talk to “his son” and reveal his good side. Unfortunately he gets one of his hands chomped and pixelated. The other three players run after Pac-Man. To win the game, the ghosts have to hit the ball three times. Throughout the chase, Pac-Man eats a power pellet, which gives him the opportunity to eat the ghosts in ten seconds. Ludlow’s car gets eaten. Eddie hits Pac-Man twice. When he tries to hit it for the third time, he accidentally drives into the water. Pac-Man finds another power pellet near a parking garage. Brenner counts the ten seconds and drives backwards through the parking place, being chased by the yellow ball. At the last second the pellet loses its power and Brenner manages to defeat Pac-Man. After all the hard work, Q*bert is brought on Earth as the new trophy.
The team attends a ball held for them as a token of appreciation. Brenner joins Violet (they become closer friends) and Eddie brings Serena Williams. She came to the party because she was promised an island. Her appearance was quite surprising, but I was glad to see her starring in the movie, as she is one of my favorite tennis players!
During the ball, the aliens send another message, telling everyone that the rules have been broken. They are about to send all the video games on Earth and destroy the planet. Everyone blames Brenner for the disaster, but he knows that he hasn’t done anything wrong. Meanwhile Matty finds out that Eddie’s shades contain cheat codes. Eddie has been using them to beat Brenner (in the arcade competition) and Pac-Man (which made him break the rules). When the aliens take Matty as their trophy, things get even more complicated. The heroes need to stop the outer space creatures.
Brenner, Cooper, Violet and Q*bert are brought into the alien ship and get one last chance to save the world. Brenner has to face his biggest challenge: Donkey Kong. While the three heroes try to rescue Matty and the other two “trophies” (the soldier and the Indian man), Brenner finds out about Eddie’s cheat codes and realizes that he is the actual champion of Donkey Kong.
Feeling confident about himself, Brenner takes a hammer and destroys the fearsome monkey. The world is finally safe and everything turns back to normal. Your question might be: how did Brenner win the game? Well, he knew Donkey Kong didn’t have a specific pattern. All he had to do was to pretend that he was the hero that didn’t want to die...
Back in the ‘80s the arcade games were intelligently made. They always put your mind to the test. You had to be smart and follow a challenging pattern. Nowadays most of the video games have no meaning. There is no pattern to follow, you need to be part of the game and become the hero who doesn’t want to get killed. If you lose, you can always press Restart. But if you had lost an arcade game, you would have had to start it all over again.
At the end of the movie, you will see the words Game over written on the screen. This made me realize that the whole story is just a game. The plot shouldn’t be taken seriously. For example, we all know that the President of the United States would never be as stupid as Cooper.
“Pixels” reminded me of “Wreck-It Ralph” as both movies share a story about video games. Q*bert is a common character as well. He’s the one who helps his friends during the two films.
All in all, the movie was really good with an interesting plot and lots of funny moments. “Pixels” is a pleasant flashback for the old generation and an exciting ride for the young generation. Kids will learn the difference between the sweet pleasure of putting your brains to work in arcade games and the excitement brought by the video games.
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